Ben Johnson Memorial Award
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1939, Billy Minick built his life in and around the rodeo arena. The longtime cowboy, rodeo producer, stock contractor and current director of the world’s largest honky-tonk has spent a lifetime promoting rodeo and the western lifestyle.
An RCA cardholder since 1959, Minick was a member of the McNeese State College Rodeo Team, competed in bareback and bull riding, and was a scorekeeper at the first National Finals Rodeo held in Dallas, Texas. He qualified for the NFR in bull riding in 1966, and two years later purchased the legendary Harry Knight Rodeo Company, managing such great venues as Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston and Cheyenne. In 1981 Minick introduced bull riding at Billy Bob’s Texas nightclub. He is now executive director of the Fort Worth’s Cowtown Coliseum, the only place where rodeo [Stockyards Championship Rodeo] can be seen every weekend, 52 weeks a year. He also serves on the board of directors for the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show, Armed Forces Bowl, Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and Stockyards Business Association.
Minick and his wife, Pam, host, chair, organize and sponsor many charitable events in the Fort Worth area including Speedway Children’s Charities, Women’s Safe Haven, Lena Pope Home, Fort Worth Can Academy, March of Dimes, Fort Worth Police Mounted Patrol and Boy Scouts Longhorn Council. For his untiring service to rodeo and to his community, Billy Minick was awarded the Ben Johnson Memorial Award in 2008.
