TEXAS COWBOY HALL OF FAME INDUCTS FIVE

        The Fort Worth Stockyards were lit up as five hundred ‘movers and shakers’ in the world of the cowboy and cowgirl came to witness five new recipients being welcomed in to the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame on January 10th.  Pam Minick, Mistress of Ceremonies, introduced each honoree and a video was shown of their respective lives.

            The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame was founded by Bobby and Susan Kerr in 1997 in Hico , Texas , to pay homage to the outstanding horsemen and women in Texas , who have excelled in and out of the arena.  In 2001, Holt and Jo Hickman moved the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame to the Fort Worth Stockyards to compliment the world class displays of the Sterquell Wagon Collection and the John Justin Trail of Fame.  The Mission Statement is:  The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame honors those individuals who have shown excellence in competition, business, and support of rodeo and the western lifestyle in Texas .  At least ten thousand visitors come through the doors each year where each of the seventy-nine honorees have an area of their own for photos, memorabilia, and special mementos of their careers.

            The honorees were:  Trevor Brazile,  born in Amarillo, and now living in Decatur, Texas, four time All Around Cowboy of the World, and the first to win three world titles in one year, 2007, in the last 24 years (All-Around, Steer Roping, and Tie Down).  He also became the first cowboy to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in four events, 2003, tie down roping, steer roping, team roping header and heeler.  In his video it was told Joe Beaver calls the Lazy E Arena Timed Event Competition the “Trevor Brazile Benefit” because he has won it so many times.   His work ethic is what has given him the successes he has achieved say many who know him, including his dad, Jimmy Brazile.  Trevor humbly accepted the honor saying “I just want to be remembered as a cowboy and I know how many sacrifices my mom and dad made for me to get where I am.  He then admitted his wife and new baby boy were waiting in the truck and they were on their way to Odessa as he was up in the morning,

George Doak, born in Fort Worth, now living in Katy, Texas, knew when he was eight years old he wanted to be a rodeo clown, the best in the world.  After sneaking around and not letting his family know about his clowning for a few years he broke out and continued to be a bullfighter and funnyman for the next twenty-eight years.  He called it a “twenty-eight year vacation”.   George was so smooth as a bullfighter he made it look effortless and his comedy was performed with the simplest props, like his rubber chicken.

He had a long list of people to thank written on a what looked like a ‘roll of toilet paper’ but when he introduced his three sons who were attending, two who have recently returned from Iraq, the applause drowned out the rest of the list.

Tom Lyons was born in Louisville , Kentucky , but as he admitted, “I got to Texas as soon as I could”.  He and wife have a ranch at Grandview but also live in downtown Fort Worth .  He has won every major National Cutting Horse Association event including two time NCHA World Champion.  He has raised and owned the reining Horse Futurity Champion and owned two of the top fifty all time American Quarter Horse Association sires of AQHA offspring.  Modestly he said, “Great horses make great trainers”.  He has held over 80 schools in the US , Australia and Canada .  Tom’s parting words, as he accepted his honor, was, “Cowboy life gets me going every morning.”

Carl Nafzger, a native of Plainview, Texas, was a bull rider and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo three years in a row, 1963-1965, and finished 3^rd in 1963.  When he quit going down the rodeo road he began training race horses.  He has trained not one but two Kentucky Derby winners.  Unbridled, in 1990, who also won the Breeder’s Cup Classic; and Street Sense in 2007, who also won the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile the year before.  He has also written a book, Traits of a Winner: The Formula for Developing Thoroughbred Racehorses.    In accepting he thanked George and Kajun Kidd for saving his life a few times and said “Larry (Mahan) will testify I couldn’t ride that good.”  He was most appreciative of being honored by Texans and by cowboys.   He finished by saying, “You know, if you don’t believe in God, study my life, it’s been a miracle.”

The Rick Smith “Spirit of Texas Award” established in 2002, was given to Don Edwards.  Rick was a music producer that produced the “Live at Billy Bob’s” CD series and brought Willie Nelson’s 4^th of July picnic to the Stockyards.  Don Edwards, one of the nation’s top entertainers, continues to enrich our vision of the American West through his ballads.  He is a historian, author and musicologist who is well versed in cowboy lore which makes his music so authentic.  The son of a vaudeville musician Don got his first guitar when he was ten years old.  In 1961 his first job as an actor, singer and stuntman was at Six Flags Over Texas.  Don was proud to announce he had met his wife just up the street from the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame at the well-known White Elephant Saloon.  Don said, “If you don’t have your heritage and your history, you ain’t got nothing!”

            For membership information to the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, a non-profit 501(C)3 organization, call 817-626-7131 or visit www.texascowboyhalloffame.com.