The first Tigers United was held in 1974 in Grants Pass, Oregon.  The original concept was the creation of Bruce Fountain of STOA.  At that time, the only officially organized Tiger clubs were STOA (Sunbeam Tiger Owners Association) CAT (California Association of Tigers) and CATS (Canadian Association of Tigers).  Bruce thought it would be great to get all of the West Coast Tiger owners together in one spot for an event.  He had some familiarity with Southern Oregon, and felt that Grants Pass was an ideal spot to hold this kind of event, as it was located about midway between Canada and Mexico.  After a lot of inter-club phone calls, publicity, planning and promotion, the first Tigers United was held in May.  Owners from all over the West attended.  The event was so successful, everyone decided that we should continue having them annually. 

The third year we held the event in Ashland, Oregon, and Ian Garrad “Father of the Tiger”, was invited as our Guest of Honor, largely due to the efforts of Tom Hall and Bill Miller. Ian had known of the Tiger clubs existence, but had lost interest in the Tiger after the demise of Rootes and the Chrysler “buy out”.  Tom had made several trips to Southern California to meet with Ian and he and Bill sent him pictures of previous Tigers Uniteds.  Ian arrived at the event during the Concours and was overwhelmed with the condition of the cars and the enthusiasm of the participants at the event.  Ian and Laura Garrad attended every TU thereafter until his illness and subsequent death.  Laura continues to attend each year as a Guest of Honor.  

When Ian returned home from Ashland, he contacted Lord Rootes in England and told him of the tremendous enthusiasm for the Tigers at the event.  Between the two of them the Lord Rootes Award was born.  It was to be the responsibility of the clubs involved to come up with the criteria for how the award was to be administered.  The methods of administrating the award have changed little since Bruce Shaffer won it the first time in 1977.