County roper named to Texas Hall of Fame
By Kathy Thomson
Lifelong Shackelford County resident Lari Dee Guy was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Fort Worth last Thursday, Jan. 16.
The induction ceremony was held at Billy Bob’s Texas and is one of the premier events held prior to the opening of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo every year.
Guy is an eight-time Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) World Champion with more than $1.5 million in career earnings, and she also competes in the World Series of Team Roping and United States Team Roping Championship. In addition, Guy is a renowned horse trainer and roping clinician, as well as an outspoken advocate for women ropers through the “Rope Like a Girl” campaign she helped launch in 2013.
Guy lives and works on her family’s 10,000 acre cow-calf ranch which lies just south and east of the corner of Highway 351 and County Road 604 between Abilene and Albany.
She went to grade school in Hamby, high school in Clyde, and then attended Vernon Junior College before earning her degree in recreational therapy with a minor in sports science from Texas Tech University.
The roper has been riding horses since she was two years old, actively competing in rodeos since the age of seven or eight.
Although she also ran barrels and tied goats in her younger days, as had her mother, Mary, Guy was more attracted to the roping events because both her father, Larry, and her older brother, Tommy, were ropers.
However, her father didn’t let her compete in roping until the left handed youngster learned to rope right handed.
“Larry is left handed, so he knew that left handed ropers are at a disadvantage,” explained Guy’s mother.
Guy was able to hold her own in the roping pen with her older brother until the two hit puberty.
She said that men are naturally stronger than women, so to compensate she worked on proper roping technique, developed strength in her hand, arm, and shoulders, and learned great horsemanship.
Her dedication has obviously paid off.
Guy won 11 consecutive world titles in the American Junior Rodeo Association, twice won the breakaway roping at the College National Finals Rodeo, has eight WPRA championship belt buckles, trains horses for other ropers including her long-time friend and fellow Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame honoree Trevor Brazile, and conducts roping clinics all over the United States and overseas.
Guy found out that she had been chosen as one of this year’s honorees about three months ago.
“They called me, but I usually don’t answer unknown numbers, so I missed it the first few times they called,” she said.
Even with all of the honors that Guy has earned in the arena, she said that being inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame was special.
“It was a pretty cool thing,” Guy said. “It was an amazing honor and something to not take lightly.”
Guy took her parents and brother, as well as a few close friends and family members with her to the induction ceremony, but she was surprised at how many more of her friends came to the $150 a ticket event just to celebrate the moment with her.
“So many of my friends showed up for it, and I wasn’t expecting that,” Guy said. “It was unreal the number that came!”
This was Guy’s first Hall of Fame induction, but it won’t be her last.
“I got a call from the Big Country Hall of Fame just a few days ago,” she said. “I’ll be inducted there on May 4.”
Included in the 2020 Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees with Guy were Charles and Kit Moncrief, the Priefert family, and R.H. Steve Stevens Jr., as well as the 2020 Spirit of Texas Award Honoree Aaron Watson.
The museum is located in the Exhibits Building in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District and it honors those individuals who have shown excellence in competition, business, and support of rodeo and western lifestyle in Texas.
Currently undergoing a relocation and renovation project, The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame is home to more than 140 inductees.
