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ANRS & Rodeo Exes
PO Box 539
Ft Stockton, TX 79735
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The ANRS & Rodeo Exes Association is an independent non-profit, charitable organization recognized
by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as an eligible 501(c)(3) entity. The mission of the Association
is to promote Sul Ross State University and to raise funds to be disbursed to deserving Agricultural
students and rodeo participants by the University. Neither the Board, nor the membership, of the
Association has any part in the selection of scholarship recipients. Membership to the Association
is open to all individuals interested in the mission and activities of the Association.
Membership is $50 annually. New or renewal memberships can be sent to:
ANRS & Rodeo Exes Treasurer
PO Box 539
Fort Stockton, Texas 79735
Additional information regarding the Association can be obtained from the same address.
Barney Nelson (BS 1971, MA 1990) is without a doubt the most prolific female writer who has ever been active in rural, horse, and agri-journalism. She has authored over 300 articles, and her photographs have appeared as covers, for most US livestock magazines and a few urban and foreign publications. For over 20 years, she was regular contributor to The Western Horseman Magazine and currently serves as Environmental Editor for Range Magazine.
She has published three books: The Last Campfire: The Life Story of Ted Gray, A West Texas Rancher (Texas A&M Press, 1984), a photography/oral interview collection from the cowboy culture called Voices and Visions of the American West (Texas Monthly press, 1986), and an anthology of cowboy poetry from the Archives of the Big Bend and Bryan Wildenthal Library called “Here’s to the Vinegarroon!” (Territorial Printer, 1989). Voices and Visions is currently being reprinted as a second edition by Texas A&M Press.
In addition, she has published numerous essays, photographs, and poetry in publication ranging from two chapters in I Wish I Could Give My Son a Wild Raccoon (Doubleday, 1976), three essays in Cowboys Who Rode Proudly (Haley Memorial Library, 1992), two poetry in several anthologies of cowboy poetry. Her photographs are part of permanent museum collections at the Gene Autry Museum (CA), the Buckaroo Hall of Fame and Museum (NV), the American Quarter Horse Association Museum (TX) and the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Museum (TX).
She was the founder of several ranching and rodeo related activities in the Big Bend Area including the RAS and Rodeo Exes and the Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering. She was instrumental in founding and organizing the National Intercollegiate Cowboy Hall of Fame and organized the first ranch rodeos held in the area. She has served on numerous cowboy-related boards of directors and furnished photographs for many national and local rodeo programs. As a student at Eastern Arizona Junior College in Thatcher, Arizona, she competed as a member of their NIRA Rodeo team, but laughs, “they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel for team members. I did much better as a fan for Sul Ross students.” As a “fan” she did everything from time rodeos to sew matching vests for all team members when Sul Ross began to go to the National Finals regularly. She drove with Sul Ross queen contestants, flew back and forth with the Sul Ross delegation and once even transported Spanish goats from Alpine to Bozeman, Montana, never missing a college finals for five or six years.
For the past two years she has been a graduate fellow at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) working toward a PhD in English literature. While there, she became heavily involved in public land grazing issues and is currently finishing a doctoral dissertation discussing the way domestic animals have been misrepresented in American literature. Also while at UNR she was co-director for the Seventh North American Interdisciplinary Wilderness Conference, Administrative Assistant for the Center for Environmental Arts and Humanities, Assistant Editor for The American Nature Writing Newsletter, Assistant Editor for the Journal for Interdisciplinary Study of Literature and the Environment, and Managing Editor for the UNR ex-student magazine.
She is a charter member of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, a member of the Western American Literature Association, the Highland Hereford Association, and the Mayflower Society as a direct descendant of Mayflower Pilgrim and First American author, William Bradford.
Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor which can be bestowed on an individual by the ANRS & Rodeo Exes Association. This honor is for ANRS graduates or friends and recognizes those who have represented the Association, the ANRS Department, or Sul Ross State University with distinction through their personal and/or professional achievements which brought honor to our University. Nominations may be submitted by any member at any time. The ANRS & Rodeo Exes Board of Directors will periodically review nominations and determines inductees into the Hall of Fame. Inductions are not necessarily held annually, but rather when a sufficient pool of inductees is obtained. The induction ceremony is at the Annual Reunion held the last weekend of July in Alpine.
Make a nomination for a deservation individual for induction into the ANRS & Rodeo Exes Hall of Fame!
There is certainly room among these fine individuals for additional honorees. Please give some consideration to nominating a deserving individual for induction into the Hall of Fame.
