Who was Will Rogers?
Will Rogers was a famous stage humorist and trick roper in the 1920s and 1930s. Born in Oklahoma, Rogers spent time branding cattle on the Waggoner Ranch in Vernon, Texas. In the 1930s, he became familiar with Texas Tech through Fort Worth Star-Telegram publisher Amon G. Carter, his friend and first chairman of the Texas Tech board of directors. After speaking at a Lubbock school auditorium on October 29, 1926, Rogers discovered that Texas Tech wanted to bring its full 90-piece band to the game against Texas Christian University in Fort Worth the following Saturday and lacked only $200 of having the neccessary funds. Rogers donated the $200 because, according to the Fort Worth Start-Telegram, ” Rogers wants Fort Worth to see a ‘real West Texas band’ and hear some real West Texas music.” Rogers was killed in a plane crash in 1935. At the time of his death, Rogers was the nation’s most widely read newspaper columnist, in the form of his daily “Will Rogers Says” telegrams and in his weekl
