Friends of Rodeo - Latest News

Earl Hall, One of Roping's Best Friends, Wins Friends of Rodeo's Gist Buckle Raffle
by Linda Burdick, Executive Director, Friends of Rodeo Organization

Earl Hall, California team roper, rodeo supporter, and long time Friends of Rodeo member, was the lucky winner of the beautiful and custom crafted special edition Gist buckle valued at $2,500 that was raffled off on June 21, 1999, during the BFI in Reno, Nevada.

As Gary Gist, of Gist Silversmiths, candidly put it when the name was announced, "Fantastic -- it couldn't have gone to a better person or bigger supporter of the sport of rodeo, especially team roping!"

How true those words are and everyone that has had the pleasure of meeting or being around Earl will vouch for those sentiments. The Halls are one of rodeo's "premier" families -- Earl is a respected roper, his daughter Stacy (Hall) Hampton is a barrel racer, and son-in-law Todd Hampton is one of team roping's top ropers -- they make every event a true "family affair."

The winning ticket, which was drawn in the arena during the BFI (right before the last go), was plucked from the bin by Dodge Representative, Brent Gibson. When Brent handed the ticket to announcer Bill Adams, Bill, who is also well-known and respected in the team roping world, looked at the winner's name, smiled approvingly, gave Gary Gist and I (we were standing front-and-center down in the arena ready to present the prize) a "thumbs-up", and then boomed out the words, "the winner of the Gist buckle is one of team roping's favorites, EARL HALL" -- the crowd went wild and applauded resoundingly. When the shocked, and almost out of breath, Earl joined us in the arena (he had been outside unsaddling his horse when he was given the news), the crowd congratulated him again with another round of applause.

I think Earl summed up his sentiments at winning the buckle best when he told me, "You know, I've won saddles before and I have either given them away or donated them back to the organization, and I've even won trailers that I've donated back, but NOT this -- I am keeping and wearing this buckle. I have a brand-new ostrich belt that it is going on -- this is one of the prettiest buckles I've ever seen."

On behalf of Friends of Rodeo, I'd like to congratulate Earl on his win and thank him for always supporting our fund raising efforts. I'd also like to express our sincere appreciation to Gary Gist for all his support of our organization and its goals -- his generosity is unequaled. I'd also like to thank each and every one of you that bought raffle tickets and finally, I especially want to thank Bob Feist for allowing us to have the raffle and drawing during his prestigious event, the BFI -- we look forward to doing it all again next year.

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