ProRodeo Sports News - March 18, 2022

EDITOR’S LETTER TRACY RENCK Fisher family gives back to Texas high school students

T he weekend of March 12-13 in Andrews, Texas, was quite busy for the Fisher family. Dan Fisher and his sons, Vin Fisher Jr., and J. Tom Fisher put on the 11th annual M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Steer Roping. Dan (16), Vin (18) and J. Tom (9) have qualified for the National Finals Steer Roping a combined 43 times. This was the seventh year the event was sanctioned by the PRCA and there were 70 cowboys who competed. The action took place at the Andrews County Expo Arena. “A long time ago I wanted to do something as a memorial for my granddad,” Vin said. “When people are gone over time it is easy to look back and forget how much people did not only for their family, but for their community and for other people. “I wanted to do something to remember my granddad. He loved roping and he loved rodeo and loved horses. His dad, who settled this ranch we have here in Andrews, passed away when (M.M.) was a senior in high school and he never went to college. But over the years he put everybody in his family through college and he even helped put other people through college who needed help. “I thought the best way to really memorialize him was to have a roping that raised money for a scholarship in his name. We’ve actually have been able to help some of these

Prior to the March 13 roping, PRCA steer roper Corey Ross conducted a church service followed by a free barbeque that fed around 400 people. The M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Scholarship is awarded to deserving graduating Andrews (Texas) High School students. “We had a big golf tournament (March 11) and then we had a big church service and barbeque cookoff and everything that was raised over the weekend is given away in scholarships for Andrews High School students,” Vin said. “We call it an athletic and academic scholarship where the person has to be involved in athletics at Andrews High School and excel in the classroom. In six years of doing this, we have given away $125,000 in scholarships. It has really gotten big. We take a lot of pride in this. “The first year we honestly wanted to make enough money to just give anything back. We had $6,000 we raised, and we thought that was great. Now, we are giving away about $30,000 a year. The community has really gotten behind it and it has really grown.” Vin said the 2022 M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Steer Roping raised $35,000. “It was awesome,” Fisher said. “It was the biggest year we have had. We had more people watching, more people volunteering, and we had a good steer roping (won by four-time world champion Scott Snedecor). You be surprised how many of these steer ropers come in and say this is their favorite roping of year. It also started out with no spectators, and we had 300 to 400 people watching this time. What’s neat is the people watching donate money and that just helps another student get help with college tuition.”

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.

kids go all the way through college. I want them to be able to look back and say the M.M. Fisher Jr. Memorial Scholarship helped put me through college.”

ProRodeo Sports News 3/18/2022

ProRodeo.com

6