Author Sylvia Gann Mahoney was a college rodeo coach, coach’s spouse, alumni administrator, former contestant, and happened to be born the year of the first collegiate rodeo. The author, more qualified perhaps than anyone to write the first book about college rodeo, is the guest speaker at the 2008 Guy Caldwell western Heritage Lecture Friday, 8 Feb in Moody Center on the HSU campus, room 233.

Sylvia Gann Mahoney

With an insider's understanding of the people, events, and history of college rodeo, Sylvia Gann Mahoney details the sport's progression from regional entertainments to international events, from one-horse trailers to multi-horse rigs, from dollar donations to million-dollar sponsorships, from human-judged inconsistency to electronic reliability, and from a ranch-raised cowboy majority to urban cowperson sprawl. She completed some of her research at Hardin-Simmons University and will discuss the important role that HSU played in the establishment of collegiate rodeo as a competitive sport. Her book, College Rodeo From Show to Sport is a chronicle of the sport and has gained a formidable following.

In the early years of the twentieth century, a growing number of kids from farms and ranches attended college, many choosing the land grant institutions that allowed them to prepare for agricultural careers back home. They brought with them a love for the skills, challenges, and competition they had known—a taste for rodeo. The first-ever college rodeo was held in 1920 at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, as Texas A&M was then known. Since that time, college rodeo has thrived on campuses throughout the West.

The Guy Caldwell Lecture series was made possible by an endowment established by Lee Caldwell, Clifton Caldwell, and Molly Cline in memory and honor of their father, local rancher Guy Caldwell. The purpose of the endowment is to preserve the western heritage of Hardin-Simmons University and the Abilene area. The 8:00 p.m. lecture is free and open to the public. For more information about the lecture, contact Dr. Tiffany Fink, 325.670.1512.

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