ProRodeo Sports News - March 17, 2023

EDITOR’S LETTER TRACY RENCK

Robert Rosales photo From left, Vin Fisher Jr., Garrett Hale, Mark Milner, Billy Frank Good (pink shirt), Bobby Jackson and Martin Poindexter, pose at the M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Steer Roping. Hale, Milner, Jackson and Poindexter were part of the winning golf team sponsored by Good. M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Steer Roping gives back

T he second weekend of March has become a special occasion for the Fisher family and steer ropers in the PRCA. On March 11-12 in Andrews, Texas, the 12th annual M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Steer Roping took place. The 2023 event was the largest in its history with 83 steer ropers competing for money toward the PRCA | RAM World Standings. This was the eighth year the event was sanctioned by the PRCA, and the action took place at the Andrews County Expo Arena. The purse was nearly $70,000. Cole Patterson, the 2021 PRCA World Champion Steer Roper, won the four-head average and left town after earning $10,202. That, however, is only a small part of the event’s story. Dan Fisher and his sons, Vin Fisher Jr., and J. Tom Fisher put on the M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Steer Roping. Dan (16), Vin (19) and J. Tom (10) have qualified for the National Finals Steer Roping a combined 45 times. J. Tom won the family’s first PRCA Steer Roping World Championship in 2022. On March 11, there was a scramble golf tournament at Andrews County Golf Course. The scramble was maxed out at 36 teams. All flight winners had to rope the dummy to determine the overall winner. “It was awesome,” Vin said of the golf tourney. “Billy Frank Good (who was the PRCA Reserve Steer Roping World Champion in 1970), was the sponsor of the winning

Jackson, and Mark Milner. Of course, when they got to the rope off, they were in pretty good shape. They won the fourth flight and snuck into the rope off and I made two of them rope left-handed and they still won.” Prior to the March 12 roping, PRCA steer roper Corey Ross conducted a church service followed by a free barbeque that fed around 300 people. The M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Scholarship is awarded to deserving graduating Andrews (Texas) High School students. “Every dollar from the (M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Steer Roping) goes back into Andrews High School senior graduates,” Vin said. “We had given $140,000 in scholarships before this year. The first year we gave away $6,000 in scholarships and last year we gave away $35,000. I’m going to say we raised approximately $40,000 this year. We are trying to use this roping scholarship to give money back to the things he (M.M.) loved. What was important to my granddad? Education was very important to him. His dad died when he was a senior in high school, and he took over the family ranch his dad had settled in Andrews. He took the ranch over, which was amazing and ran it his whole life. “He was so adamant about education, his wife, my

Tracy Renck is the editor of the ProRodeo

Sports News . He previously served more than seven years as a media coordinator at the PRCA. He has three decades of experience in sports journalism with the last several consumed by ProRodeo.

grandmother, went back to school after they got married and got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He put his wife through school and his two kids, my dad, and my aunt through school. Then he had seven grandchildren and he put all of them through college as well. That’s the legacy.”

team. He has sponsored my roping every year I have had it and his golf team was all PRCA steer ropers in Martin Poindexter, Garrett Hale, Bobby

ProRodeo Sports News 3/17/2023

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