The purpose of the CowBoy Heritage Club is to promote, encourage, explain, and otherwise spread CowBoy Spirit and Attitude.  To recognize achievement in this area, we have selected 100 (or more)  CowBoys of the (20th) Century. 

Wanting to get in on the Y2K hoopla, although the century and the millennium have more than a year to go,  we asked, through the Worldwide Web, for nominees who met these criteria:

• Lived in the 20th Century (1901-2001)
• Demonstrated a Buckaroo Attitude, or
• Inspired others to such an Attitude.

We carefully considered all the other nominees, and some made the list.  We will soon publish a list of the other nominees.

The 20th was a media century. Motion pictures came in at the beginning and built up CowBoy heroes. Television came in at the middle and helped tear them down. Radio, rodeo, records, and various forms of fiction and nonfiction writing also shaped the CowBoy concept. Thus, the ones with the most media exposure were the most influential, so they belong on the list.

It could be that museums will have more influence on the CowBoy image in the future.  Several on this list have established or inspired museums of note.

 For different reasons a few folks not widely known or not normally associated with big hats and boots also made the list Here are some of the reasons.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, General of the Army, President of the United States, National Cowboy Hall of Fame Inductee, grew up in Abilene, Kansas. He was a cowboy for two summers, but he's on this list because of what he did in World War II. When the war started he was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army. When it was over he was a five-star general and Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. It has been written that the Allies' winning World War II saved the world.  About the only thing those Allies had in common was being on the other side from the Nazis. Otherwise, they constantly bickered with each other. That they stuck together long enough to win the war was largely due to the personality and abilities of "The Man From Abilene." 

Joe Montana, now prominent in cutting horse circles, gives us three people named Montana on the list.  But talk about an I-can-do attitude.  In football games Joe Montana was cool in the clutch and the consumate come-from-behind quarterback.  When Cincinnati led  in the Super Bowl with less than a minute to go and his 49ers on their own 10-yard line, a Cincinnati player said, "We've got 'em now," and another said, "Look who they have at quarterback." 

Stan Musial, Baseball Hall of Famer, harmonica player, and friend of Gene Autry, was nominated by a CowBoy fan.  He's on the list for two reasons. One is to help make up for an injustice. Although he was #10 on the Sporting News list of the best baseball players of the century and one of the top 50 athletes according to ESPN, he didn't get enough fan votes for the top 100 players. He actually deserves to be on our list because of his Buckaroo Attitude. As a class D pitcher, he hurt his shoulder and was washed up his first season—as a pitcher.  With encouragement from his manager, Dickie Kerr, he went on to become Stan "The Man," a Major League record-setting outfielder and first baseman.  In 1947,  he played most of the season with appendicitis and hit .310. But here's the main reason. In Stan's Class D season, Dickie Kerr  took the newly married Musials into his home and encouraged young Stan to make the switch to the outfield (he thought the youngster could hit). When he could afford it, Stan Musial bought Dickie Kerr a new house.

H. Ross Perot, founder of Electronic Data Processing, Presidential candidate, National Cowboy Hall of Fame Inductee, trained horses and did rope tricks as a teenager. When Iranians arrested some of his employees, Perot organized a rescue. He became a billionaire when he sold EDP to General Motors. He made another huge chunk of money when GM paid him to get off the Board of Directors and quit asking embarassing question. His independent Presidential campaign in 1992 created panic among Republicans, Democrats, and news media. That's why he's on the list.

Chester Reynolds, head of the Lee clothing company, was a man with an idea.  He thought we should have a National Cowboy Hall of Fame, and he did something about it.  He started by contacting the governors of the 17 Western states and getting their endorsement, then he got the thing going.

Jon Guyot Smith, writer, teacher, broadcaster, CowBoy enthusiast, did the impossible. Radio drama was dead, but Jon Smith produced, wrote, and acted in "Willow Crossing," which was broadcast on several stations. Teaching at a New York college, he heard about a course on Frank Sinatra and askd, "Why not one on Gene Autry?" They said OK, so he designed and taught highly popular courses on B Movie Cowboys, a subject he knows in great width and depth. His articles and CD liner notes add greatly to listeners' knowledge and enjoyment of CowBoy movies and music.

Jerry Van Meter, cowhand, was nominated because of an adventure he undertook in 1946. He took a bet and did something "impossible." Jimmie Wakely bet that Jerry could not ride a horse from Oklahoma to Hollywood in 50 days. Jerry took the bet and won. 

Herb Jeffries, jazz singer, recording and night club artist, starred in a short series of Westerns in the late 1930s.  The were produced and performed by people of African descent for the Black theaters of the day.  Few people knew about the films until recently.  Jeffries went on to be a big star in more sophisticated surroundings.  Now he has a lively new career as, once again, a singing CowBoy.

George Lucas, writer, director, innovator, created Star Wars and its sequels and prequels. Although the locations, costumes, and transportation are somewhat different, these films are some of the best Westerns of recent times. Two of his characters, representing different types of Western heroes, are also on the list, Luke Skywalker (the good-guy hero) and Han Solo (the good-bad-guy hero).  Then there's action/adventure character Indiana Jones.  Two reluctant heroes from all-time great movies, Clark Gable's Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind, and Humphrey Bogart's Rick Blaine in Casablanca displayed definite CowBoy characteristics.

Other fictional characters are strongly identified with the CowBoy image. Two Larry McMurtry characters, Woodrow Call and Gus McRae from Lonesome Dove were nominated. Hopalong Cassidy, along with his creator, Clarence E. Mulford, his portrayer, William Boyd, are on the list. Red Ryder and his creator Fred Harman are there. So are the Lone Ranger, the Cisco Kid, and Zorro. Any movie or TV star listed is technically a fictional character, because the screen personalities are the ones we know, in most cases.

One person is on the list twice.  He started as Leonard Slye and started the Sons of the Pioneers.  That's good enough.  Then he became a CowBoy hero.  His coronation came from studio politics, but as  Roy Rogers he wore the crown of King of the Cowboys long after Republic Pictures went out of business.  Also on the list from Roy Rogers pictures are Trigger, the smartest horse in the movies, Dale Evans, Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, and the Sons of the Pioneers, George "Gabby" Hayes, and the personification of movie bad guys, Roy Barcroft. 

The List and the sub-lists are alphabetical. In the cowboy sport, rodeo, a the contestant winning the most money in more than one event is the all around champion. In this case, the ones who show up on the most sub-lists are on the all-around list. This, too, is alphabetical, except for the two who are on the most lists and were among the best and most popular on all of them. Those two are the CowBoy Philosopher, Will Rogers, and America's Favorite CowBoy, Gene Autry.  Both also rank highly in generosity.  Will donated and raised large amounts of money for worthy causes.  Directly or indirectly, Gene gave more than half a billion dollars, that we know of, for worthy causes.

     People on this list were active throughout the century, Andy Adams, Buffalo Bill, and Owen Wister at the beginning, Baxter Black, Don Edwards, and Riders in the Sky at the end, and a bunch in the middle.
 Cowboys get less national notice now than during the first half of the century, but more people buy cowboy boots and hats now than ever.  There are more rodeos.  There are more cowboy poetry gatherings, film & music festivals, magazines, records, and videotapes now than during the early days (a lot vs. none).

     Today we have fewer heroes, role models, and inspiring personalities, but some folks remember and read about Buffalo Bill, Will Rogers, and Tom Mix.  In the 1930s Buck Jones’ Rangers had 3 million youthful members. Gene Autry’s fan club started in 1938, and it’s alive today, but the members are few.  People like Riders in the Sky, Don Edwards, and Baxter Black helped keep cowboy music and ideas and attitudes alive in the last 20 years, and after swimming upstream for a long time, they're at the head of a CowBoy resurgence .