News

By Ted Harbin

It was the fall of 2020 when Cole Franks made a couple of goals for himself.

He was a sophomore at Clarendon College in his hometown, competing on the rodeo team for his father, Bret Franks, the program’s coach. He also had just purchased his card, allowing him to be a full-fledged member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association instead of a permit-holder.

He wanted to win a college championship for his team for the 2020-21 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association season and hoped to add the PRCA’s Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year title.

The missions were accomplished in multiple ways over the summer run of rodeo. Franks dominated the bareback riding race at the College National Finals Rodeo and also qualified for the championship round in saddle bronc riding to win both the bareback riding and all-around titles in Casper, Wyoming. He also was a major part of the reason the men’s team title went to Clarendon.

Within a few weeks of that, he’d earned enough money to have clinched the rookie crown. He finished with $77,393 in earnings, leading the field by nearly $45,000. With that, though, he added another major accomplishment to his list by qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo. In fact, he’ll head to Las Vegas for ProRodeo’s grand finale as the 12th-ranked bareback rider in the world standings.

“Making the finals is really great,” said Franks, 20, now a junior at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri.

“When I got my card this year, I wasn’t focused on it or even looking at the finals this year. I was just looking at the rookie deal and banking on making the finals next year. For it to happen this year is really cool.”

It happened because of relationships he’s developed in his time in ProRodeo. He joined two NFR veterans – three-time world champion Tim O’Connell and 2020 average titlist Jess Pope – on the rodeo trail and gained some education because of it. As Franks moved his way up the bareback riding money list, O’Connell and Pope offered the idea of a switch in priorities: Focus on making the NFR, and the rookie race would come.

That’s exactly what happened. Along the way, Franks picked up some big victories. In fact, he finished the 2021 campaign with 13 event titles and had three rides of 90 points or better, all of which came the same week in early August. He started out the week by scoring 92 points on Three Hills Rodeo’s Spanish Feathers to win in Carson, Iowa.

A couple days later, he followed that with a 90 on Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Bar Code to win the first round in Dodge City, Kansas, advancing to the championship round at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame event in western Kansas. On Short-Round Sunday, he set an arena record by spurring Frontier Rodeo’s Gun Fire for 93 points, one of the highest scores of the season in the PRCA.
Born in Guymon, Oklahoma, Franks is the second generation of his family to advance to rodeo’s most prestigious event; Bret Franks was a three-time NFR qualifier in saddle bronc riding. Cole Franks proves the genetics come strong in their athletic form, but so does the love for the game.

He was two months from being born the last time his dad played on the biggest stage in ProRodeo. He’s only seen videos and heard stories, but that never curbed his hunger to be one of the best cowboys in the sport. Like his dad, Cole Franks likes riding bucking horses. He uses a bronc saddle some, especially in college, but he’s excelled using a bareback rigging.

“It’s cool to think I’m following in Dad’s footsteps, even if it’s in bareback riding and not bronc riding,” said Franks, who credits much of his success to his sponsors, Cinch, Pete Carr Pro Rodeo, Western Legacy Co. and 287 Ag.

“I have always told myself that I had to make it at least three times, tying Dad’s three,” he said. “But I want to make it to where I have three (world championship) gold buckles to put with Dad’s three back numbers.”

By transferring to Missouri Valley, he’s positioned himself to only improve upon his skills. The college is well known for its bareback riding prowess, and Franks will be one of four bronc busters with ties to the college performing at the NFR, joining O’Connell, Pope and Tanner Aus for the 10 nights of action from Dec. 2-11 in Las Vegas.

“Bareback riding is just more of a fight,” Franks said. “I wouldn’t say I’ve always had a fighter’s personality, but I’ve always wished I was in a way. I think that’s what made me stick with it because of the aggressiveness of it. In the bronc riding, you have to be relaxed to a point, but in bareback riding, it’s 100 percent bare down.”

It’s the perfect fit for the young man who won’t back down from a fight with a 1,200-pound bucking beast.

A new trash truck is making the rounds in Hedley thanks to a grant from the US Department of Agriculture and the hard work of city officials.

City Manager Kim Davis said USDA provided $60,000 and the city financed the remaining $112,000 through Herring Bank in order to purchase the new truck.

The new Mack truck will take the place of a 1979 truck that the city had purchased used about six years ago, according to Mayor Carrie Butler.

“I’m just super excited for our little town,” Butler said. “We’ve been struggling for a long time with the old truck, and Kim has done a wonderful job and the council has been onboard.”

Butler said the new truck is part of a bigger effort to clean up Hedley and make improvements around town.

“We want to get all of our alleys cleaned out so we don’t scratch up our new truck” she said.
In addition to collecting trash from Hedley residents, the city also services several rural accounts and hopes to add more accounts now that it has more reliable equipment.

City foreman L.W. Henshaw said there were several times that only miracles kept the old truck running, and he said that it was showing less and less power as it got older.

Davis started working on the grant to get a new trash truck back in March with the help of Clyde Jenkins at the Amarillo USDA office.

Hedley officials saw they will now turn their attention to applying for a Texas Parks & Wildlife grant to create a new city park for the community.

By Julio Vega, Amarillo Globe-News

Prior to last Thursday’s kickoff, the 11 Hedley football players kneeled down in front of 20 people. The folks weren’t just random Hedley fans, but the legacy of two very specific Hedley fans that had been a staple of the Owls’ sidelines for decades, Buford and Geraldine Holland. The game that followed was almost an afterthought, especially when most fans knew how it was going to end.

But the game went on, with Follett downing Hedley 54-6 after three quarters due to the mercy rule in a District 1-1A Division II contest. The Panthers (10-0, 4-0) secured their undefeated mark, while the Owls (8-2, 2-2) enjoyed one of the program’s best campaigns in years. Plenty of touchdowns were scored, but the loudest cheer of the night came from the home crowd as Hedley put up its only score in the final seconds of the first half. But those two very special fans were missing from the home sideline, their cheers not heard but felt. Buford Holland passed away October 15, 2021, while his wife, Geraldine, died nearly two years prior on December 8, 2019.

Both were honored for their longtime fandom and impact on the community of Hedley. It was the first home game for the Owls since Buford Holland passed away, and the final game of the Hedley season, marking the end of an era. But at the same time, a new beginning. The Owls won eight games this season, something that had never been done prior and could happen next fall with the team graduating one senior. Though barely connected to the Hollands at all, the timing may have been a sign from the universe.

Everyone knew the couple. They were always at football and basketball games, community events and were active with their neighbors and immersed in the community. The Hollands had four children, Darrell, Glyndol, Lynn and Gail, who all graduated from Hedley. They also have grandchildren and great-grandchildren who went through Hedley. They left their mark in the town of less than 300. And it will continue.

Gail Hill (formerly Holland) said after she and all her siblings graduated and moved on from Hedley, her parents found their calling in being the parents and grandparents of the Hedley community.

“They just loved to go to games and see the kids,” Hill said. “That was just their life. They enjoyed seeing the kids and supporting the school. That was just what they did.”

Grandson Lynn Holland, named for his late uncle, even went as far as to make a six-part documentary, highlighting the various aspects of their lives and the pillars they lived by: simplicity, community, hard work, commitment, and family. Lynn Holland said he started filming parts of the documentary starting in 2015 but started really working on it in the final weeks of his grandfather’s life.

“We played the documentary for the family after Buford’s funeral,” he said. “It really brought us all together. That will go down as one of the proudest moments of my life. The process of working on the documentary transformed me by revealing what was truly important in life.”

Buford and Geraldine Buford lived a simple, yet enjoyable life, but their impact has been felt across the community – young and old. Despite the lopsided scoreline and the curtain falling on Hedley’s season Thursday, the Holland’s impact went far beyond their presence on the sideline and in the community.

Hedley assistant coach Eric Alston grew up with the Hollands on the sidelines. He played in front of them, then eventually returned to coach on the sidelines for the Owls.

“When you look over and don’t see them, there’s just a hole over there,” Alston said. “They represented that small-town support. They were always here, even when they had no family to support. They were here to support us, the team, the town. For us, that means a lot.”