The Academy of Western Artists has announced that Gail Hughbanks Woerner has been selected as a recipient of the 2008 Will Rogers Medallion Award for Western Non-fiction for her latest book, “Rope To Win, The History of Steer, Calf, and, Team Roping”. Gail will receive her award at their awards ceremony Tuesday evening, September 23 at Granville Theater in Garland, Texas.
Gail was born in northeastern Colorado and reared on a ranch homesteaded by her great-grandparents which she still owns and operates. She was a constant companion to her cowboy grandfather, who taught her to break horses, compete in horse shows, and work cattle. An admitted “tomboy”, she spent as much time outside as possible. Her favorite pastime was attending area rodeos. She has spent the last twenty plus years researching and interviewing rodeo people. Traveling extensively, she has attended historic rodeo places such as Calgary, Pendleton, Cheyenne, Denver, Rowell, and Sidney, to name just a few. She even attended a Cossack rodeo in the Ukraine, went to Argentina where she rode horses with the gauchos and rode Highland Ponies in Scotland.
Her first book on rodeo history, “Fearless Funnymen: The History of the Rodeo Clown”, was published in 1993. “Belly Full of Bedsprings: The History of Bronc Riding” and “Cowboy Up! The History of Bull Riding” were her next two books. She has also published a children’s book, “Charley & Amanda Meet Rusty the Rodeo Clown”, along with illustrator, Gail Gandolfi. Her latest book “Rope To Win, The History of Steer, Calf, and, Team Roping” is the accumulation of two decades of research and interviews.
Gail serves as the director of the Rodeo Clown Reunion which is held every other year to honor retired funnymen and bullfighters. National Geographic, TNN, and OLN “Cowboy” have covered the event for special television programs. She also serves on the committee that hosts the annual Cowboy Reunion held each year during the PRCA Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
A member of Western Writers of America, she has contributed to other books and has penned numerous articles for a select number of periodicals, including The American Cowboy, Western Horseman, Persimmon Hill, I. M. Cowgirl, ProRodeo Sports News, and The Ketch Pen (magazine of the Rodeo Historical Society). She has written articles on rodeo history for magazines in Australia, Canada, and France .
She is the resident rodeo historian for the Rodeo Attitude Program. She writes a column entitled “Behind the Chutes & Elsewhere” for their website, www.rodeoattitude.com, which covers positive events happening to rodeo people, as well as biographies and stories about rodeo persona, past and present. From this column she receives and responds to e-mails and request from around the world regarding rodeo and its history.
Gail is chairman of the Rodeo Historical Society’s Oral History Program gathering information from cowboys and cowgirls, which is housed at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.
Gail and her husband Cliff ranched in Central. Texas, raising Texas Longhorn cattle, Appaloosas and Quarter Horses, and now reside in Austin, Texas, on Lake Travis.
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