A LEGENDARY AWARD IN HONOR OF A TRUE LEGEND
Thomas Boone Pickens 1928 to 2019
THE PRESTIGIOUS
T. BOONE PICKENS AWARD.
The T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman Award was created by Park Cities Quail Coalition to recognize sportsmen who have distinguished themselves by living a life of adventure, love of the outdoors, respect for natural resources, and most of all have demonstrated a spirit of giving back and making it possible for others to enjoy the sporting life. Each honoree is presented with a special personalized bronze sculpture designed by Walter Matia.
2023 RECIPIENT
Rex Tillerson
Rex W. Tillerson served as the Nation's 69th Secretary of State from February 2017 to March 2018. Prior to being sworn in as Secretary of State, he concluded a career of more than 41 years in the petroleum industry, retiring as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Exxon Mobil Corporation at the end of 2016.
Rex was born in Wichita Falls and grew up in Vernon, Stillwater, OK, and Huntsville with a love of the outdoors. His hobbies include quail hunting, fly fishing, horseback cattle drives, and cross-country Harley rides with his friends. Rex enjoys raising and working cattle at his ranch in Wichita county. For many years, he and his wife Renda have enjoyed competing with and breeding their own cutting horses. They are very committed to habitat restoration and wildlife conservation on their ranch.
Tillerson joined Exxon after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. He rose through the ranks and following a number of domestic and foreign assignments, including, President of Exxon Yemen, Inc. and, Exxon Neftegas, Ltd. in Russia. He became President of the corporation in 2004 and Chairman and CEO in 2006.
Tillerson has had a longstanding involvement with the Boy Scouts of America, earning Eagle Scout as a youth and as an adult receiving the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award. He also received the Silver Beaver and Silver Buffalo Awards for his service as an adult volunteer. He is a former member of the Boy Scouts of America's Executive Committee and served as the national President of the Boy Scouts from 2010 to 2012. Rex has received numerous recognition and awards from domestic and international organizations and governments.
He is a former member of the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petroleum Council serving as Chairman of both. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2013 and was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. He formerly served as a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He was also a member of the Business Roundtable, serving on the Executive Committee, and a member of the Business Council. Mr. Tillerson currently serves as a Member of the Board of Directors for the National Medal of Honor Museum.
“I have had the pleasure of attending several of the PCQC dinners and am honored to be recognized with such a distinguished group of sportsmen. I have a deep love of quail hunting and I appreciate PCQC’s efforts to perpetuate this important pastime for future generations.”
2023 RECIPIENT
Kevin Costner
Known throughout the world for his accomplishments as an actor, producer, and film director, Costner has received two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Kevin has starred in, directed, and produced some of the most iconic films of our time including:
The Untouchables, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, JFK, The Highwaymen, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Bodyguard, A Perfect World, Wyatt Earp, Waterworld, Tin Cup, The Postman, Message in a Bottle, No Way Out, For Love of the Game, Thirteen Days, 3000 Miles to Graceland, Dragonfly, Open Range, Rumor Has It, The Guardian, Mr. Brooks., 3 Days to Kill, McFarland, USA, Draft Day, Criminal, and many more films on the big screen. Kevin is currently producing and staring as John Dutton in the hit series Yellowstone.
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Lesser known to the public is Kevin’s love of hunting, fishing, and other outdoor pursuits. When approached about the award, Kevin replied “I have always loved the outdoors and the opportunity to hunt and fish with friends and family. When we were filming Dances with Wolves in South Dakota over 30 years ago, we would take advantage of breaks to hunt and fish. My parents loved it so much that they moved to South Dakota. We hunted pheasants together up to the time of my father’s death last year. I wrote a song “Last Time” to honor him. I have instilled the love of hunting in my three young sons who have both completed their hunter safety program and have shared many adventures with me. I am very proud to be a sportsman and conservationist and I am honored beyond belief to join this distinguished group of sportsmen and women in receiving this award”
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2022 RECIPIENT
Walter Matia
Regarded by many as the greatest living sporting art sculptor, Walter Matia got an early start at paying attention to creatures that soar, crawl, and hide in the grass. As an avid duck hunter, he has experienced "a lifetime of icy mornings, blistered feet, mosquitoes, torrid afternoons, chapped hands, wonderful dinners and the companionship of great and knowledgeable friends" all of which he eventually translates into his art. Much of his early training was attained during a long apprenticeship in the Exhibits Department of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Walter began casting bronze sculptures in 1980, initially concentrating on bird life, and over the years working on sporting dogs and other mammals. In 1989, the Blair House Restoration Committee placed one of his fountains in the formal garden of the President of the United States Guest House. Among Walter's larger-than-life-size commissions is the bull logo of the Merrill Lynch Corporation headquartered in New York City and the Spanish fighting bulls in front of NRG Stadium, home of the Houston Texans.
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PCQC members will recognize that the T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman Award sculpture was created and is donated by Walter each year. Walter also creates a unique annual medallion for our sponsors and donors. He has consistently donated a live auction item and attended each dinner. His works grace the homes of numerous PCQC patrons. Walter has a setter named ‘Pip’ and enjoys West Texas quail hunts at every opportunity.
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Renowned outdoor writer Tom Davis described Walter’s art best: “When you study a Walter Matia sculpture, it dawns on you, perhaps not all at once but at some point, that you are in the presence of uncommon mastery. There is nothing accidental; everything is there for a reason…and so is everything that is not. Someone described Walter’s work as having a “labored intensity,” and I keep coming back to that. This is serious, even challenging art that is rooted in the authentic experience of the outdoors and speaks powerfully and eloquently to the sensibilities of sportsmen.”
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2021 RECIPIENT
Martin F. "Bubba" Wood
Prolific hunter, fisherman, sporting art dealer, world champion skeet shooter and conservationist, Bubba Wood is an all-around sportsman. Since founding Collectors Covey in Highland Park Village in 1978, Bubba used his keen eye for sporting art to earn a national reputation as a purveyor of beautiful paintings, sculptures, apparel, and home furnishings. During his 40 years at Collectors Covey, he published 14 sporting books and countless wildlife prints. Bubba also created the Texas Duck Stamp program which was responsible for over $7 million in royalties to Texas Parks and Wildlife.
Bubba has been critical to the success of many conservation non-profits and every PCQC dinner since the beginning. His creativity and dedication to excellence can be seen in everything we do. In 2008, Bubba convinced his close friend, Boone Pickens, to join the PCQC cause, which propelled our organization to stratospheric levels. Over his 80 years, Bubba has befriended some of the legendary sportsmen across the country who have shared his company and his love for wing shooting.
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Legendary outdoor writer- Gene Hill said it well: “Bubba, at least in my book, was about as fine a man with a 20 bore side by side as I have ever had the pleasure to gun with. In about the toughest country I know to stand out as a quail expert, he was a commonly acknowledged master”
2020 RECIPIENT
Carl Allen
Carl Allen is a successful entrepreneur, passionate hunter, angler, treasure hunter, conservationist, and philanthropist. Since the beginning of our organization fourteen years ago, Carl has supported Park Cities Quail Coalition with over $2 million in contributions. Carl set a new high watermark for PCQC auctions including hunts at his farm in Tennessee, deep-sea fishing, cruising aboard his yachts, and eventually donating a fantasy trip on his armada of ships and recreational craft in the Bahamas. These donations along with his record-breaking purchases of the Boone Pickens’ Mesa Vista hunt have made it possible for us to fulfill the PCQC mission. As much as Carl loves the sporting life, his generosity has inspired a legion of future generations with the ability to enjoy it as well.
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Over his career as a hunter and fisherman who values and appreciates conservation, Carl has supported Ducks Unlimited, supported hunting ranches in Africa, and overseen the care and supported hunting ranches in Africa, and overseen the care and replenishment of fifteen different hunting leases in West Texas. In addition, after purchasing Walker’s Cay in the Bahamas, this legendary fishing mecca is being meticulously restored under Carl’s leadership and vision. He is working with the Bahamian Government to develop plans for desalinization plants, liquefied natural gas usage, environmentally sensitive garbage processing, and other initiatives to improve the quality of both human life and environmental resources on the islands. Since the tragedy caused by Hurricane Dorian in September, Carl, his wife Gigi, and his team of 24 have been working non-stop to utilize his resources for emergency relief including rescue, relocation, and infrastructure. His support vessel, Motor Yacht Axis, has been hauling containers of supplies and using its massive desalinization capacity to save and improve lives all over the Bahamas.
Additionally, Carl and Gigi support a multitude of philanthropic organizations, including Envision of Wichita Kansas and Envision Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind, Children’s Medical Center Foundation, Children’s of Mississippi’s Batson Children’s Hospital, The Sentry Project, The Enough Project, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Aurora Trust Foundation, and the Special Forces Charitable Trust. Learn more about Carl and his philanthropy at www.allenexploration.com.
2019 RECIPIENT
Johnny Morris
At age 21, Johnny Morris fell in love with the emerging sport of bass fishing and spent five years on the professional circuit. After noticing a growing interest in the sport, Johnny started Bass Pro Shops with eight square feet of space in the back of his father’s liquor store in Springfield, Missouri, the company’s sole location for the first 13 years of business. Johnny’s passion for the outdoors and his feel for the products and shopping experiences desired by outdoor enthusiasts helped transform the industry.
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Since 1972, Johnny has earned a reputation as one of the most visionary and influential retailers of the last 50 years. Johnny pioneered the concept of destination retail and created an outdoor-gear enterprise that is one of the most beloved and well-recognized brands in North America. Advocating for conservation is a personal passion for Johnny, who recognizes the need for citizens to take a strong position in the careful management and use of our natural resources. Today, he is one of the country’s leaders working to ensure natural habitats, wildlife and the outdoors remain healthy and abundant for future generations to enjoy, having established a significant personal legacy that spans national initiatives and extensive partnerships supporting conservation organizations. More information about
Johnny Morris can be found online at www.basspro.com/johnnymorris
2018 RECIPIENT
Rick Snipes
Renowned Outdoor Writer -Tom Davis says it best: “No one I know better personifies upland hunting as an art form than Rick Snipes. Nor has anyone I know raised the bar as high. As he himself observes, “Our role as bird hunters is to bear witness to our dogs’ artistry and confirm their genius with our guns.” In that single eloquent sentence, Rick Snipes encapsulates everything I’ve been trying to say in 35 years of writing about gun dogs and bird hunting.
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I’ve heard Rick described as “the consummate quail hunter,” but while that’s certainly true it only tells part of the story. To me, he’s the Renaissance Man of the wing-shooting world. In the field, there is no skill he does not possess, but he’s widely read, too, deeply knowledgeable on a variety of subjects, thoughtful, analytical, insightful, and also howlingly funny. He’s at ease in any company, at home in any environment. He has that rare gift, regardless of the setting or situation, for making everyone around him better.
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And as he has shown in his leadership role as Chairman of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Foundation,
"Rick is passionately, even ferociously committed to the cause of quail conservation. While recognizing that the quality of the habitat is paramount, Rick has tirelessly advocated the creative “outside the box” approaches to solving the problem of quail decline. The ongoing research into the effect of parasites on bobwhite quail populations, an effort funded by Park Cities Quail and the RPQRF, is a noteworthy example of the kind of groundbreaking work he feels is absolutely necessary if this grand bird, and this great sport, are to survive.”
– Tom Davis
2017 RECIPIENT
Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw grew up in South Dakota, where his love of the outdoors and hunting dogs grew out of a childhood spent pheasant hunting on the plains. This passion would only grow as he aged, even scheduling college courses to accommodate the hunting season. Although he has traveled the world fly-fishing and wing shooting, he and his Labrador ‘Red’ return to his home state every autumn for the pheasant season.
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When 2012 Lifetime Sportsman Award recipient, Ted Turner, was asked about Tom being the 2017 recipient he said, “Tom and I have spent many hours fly fishing and hunting wild quail. He is a nature lover, skilled sportsman and a joy to be with.”
2016 RECIPIENT
Delmar Smith
Delmar Smith grew up on a ranch in Big Cabin, Oklahoma where he spent his childhood riding horseback to and from school and working for local dog trainers. By the time Delmar was 13, he had saved enough money from cleaning dog pens to take a horse training course. He applied the techniques learned in that course to create “The Delmar Smith Method”. It was this revolutionary way for training bird dogs that led him to become one of America’s most respected trainers producing two books and three videos.
Delmar has devoted a lifetime to the sport of gun dogs and bird dogs as a breeder, trainer, and judge. As a conservationist, he was at the forefront of ecological and biological studies to create superior environments for the propagation of game-birds. Those areas have since been developed into excellent field trial grounds throughout the mid- and southwestern United States.
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Delmar has bred, trained, and handled bird dogs to numerous championships including five Brittany National Championships, five US Open Brittany Championships, and two Brittany National Futurity. In fact, between Delmar, his sons Rick and Tom, and his nephew Ronnie, they have won numerous International, National and US Open championships. Delmar also helped initiate the first AKC Shooting Dog Stakes, the Fleetwood Classic, and the International Endurance Championship.
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Delmar has not slowed down and still keeps a kennel of 75 dogs. He continues to be in demand as both a field trial judge and consultant which allows him to “give back” to the sport that has been so good to him. Delmar is a generous supporter of the Bird Dog Foundation and the Field Trial Hall of Fame where he was an inductee in 1998.
2015 RECIPIENT
Katharine Armstrong
In 2001, Katharine became the first woman chair of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. She oversaw the development of the Land and Water Resources Conservation and Recreation Plan and created the Texas Quail Council. She is the founding president of Taking Care of Texas, former First Lady Laura Bush’s statewide conservation initiative. Her love of all things wild evolved from a practical ranching background. She worked cattle on weekends and summers from an early age. Armstrong’s parents helped her develop a love for hunting and fishing. Though she enjoys all outdoor endeavors, quail hunting is her favorite.
2014 RECIPIENT
George Strait
Strait made his name as a legendary country music entertainer for 30 years. Growing up in Pearsall, and on his family ranch outside of Big Wells, Texas, Strait gained an appreciation of the outdoors and wildlife conservation. As a third-generation rancher, team roper, and a lifelong sportsman, George has always maintained a special bond with his heritage, despite his busy touring schedule. As George winds down his time on the road, he anticipates spending more time with his friends and family on his South Texas ranch near Laredo.
2013 RECIPIENT
A.V. Jones Jr. 1932 - 2020
Jones was an energy entrepreneur, rancher, and lifelong resident of Albany, in Shackelford County, east of Abilene. His father settled the family in Shackelford County because it offered the best quail hunting he could find, and A.V. Jr. committed himself and his resources to continue that tradition. Following World War II, the Jones family began acquiring ranch land for gas and oil prospects with an eye toward quail hunting potential. Jones Family Ranches includes about 30,000 acres. As chairman, A.V. Jones has been a steward of the land and wildlife in general but particularly of bobwhite quail, even before the Texas quail decline was widely acknowledged.
2012 RECIPIENT
Ted Turner
Ted Turner is chairman of the Turner Foundation, an independent family foundation which supports efforts for improving air and water quality, developing a sustainable energy future to protect the earth’s climate, safeguarding environmental health, protecting and maintaining wildlife habitat, and developing practices and policies to curb population growth rates; and co-founder of Ted’s Montana Grill restaurant chain, which operates 44 locations nationwide. Turner is also chairman of Turner Enterprises, Inc. a private company which manages his business interests, land holdings and investments, including the oversight of 2 million acres in 12 states and in Argentina, and more than 55,000 bison head. In addition, he is chairman of the United Nations Foundation and co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
2011 RECIPIENT
Ray Murski 1939 - 2011
Ray Murski was a worldwide hunter, a tireless supporter of the hunting and fishing industries, and a passionate quail hunter from the time he owned his first bird dog at the age of ten. An avid supporter of quail conservation, Murski was a critical patron in the formative years of the highly acclaimed Bobwhite Brigade youth camps. Murski was a Texas Wildlife Association director and served on the board of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation.
2010 RECIPIENT
Bob Carter
Bob Carter has not only been recognized for his business endeavors, but also for his stewardship of the land. Bob is a passionate hunter, conservationist, and a strident supporter of quail research. In 1982, Bob and his wife Janice, named their new company “Panda Energy,” after an icon of the environmental movement.
2009 RECIPIENT
Ray Sasser 1948 - 2018
Ray was an accomplished author of 11 books, and writer of feature stories and/or columns for nearly every outdoor publication in Texas, began his career in the newspaper business at The Lufkin News in 1970 while still in college. Sasser has also been featured in many national publications.
2008 RECIPIENT
T. Boone Pickens 1928 - 2019
Boone was an avid quail enthusiast, environmental steward, and conservationist before many in Texas even knew what it meant. His 68,000-acre Mesa Vista Ranch is a model for wildlife resource management. His business ventures, which speak for themselves, include an alternative energy provider, and the largest supplier of vehicular natural gas in North America.
2007 RECIPIENT
Walter Kellogg 1929 - 2006
Walter was known by many in the region as the consummate gentleman sportsman. A lover of bird dogs and the traditions of the sport, Walter introduced many youths to their first hunt. Unfortunately, Walter passed away just a few weeks before the ceremony, but he left a legacy of the sporting life to his family and many others throughout the country.