James Link, Bill Mack to be Recognized at TCU Football Game
Nov. 14, 2003
FORT WORTH, Texas
James Link, director of the Ranch Management Program at TCU, and Grammy Award winning country music broadcaster and songwriter Bill Mack will be honored at a ceremonial luncheon at 11:30 a.m. prior to Saturday's TCU-Cincinnati football game, which kicks off at 2 p.m. in Fort Worth.
The event comes in conjunction with TCU's "Western Heritage Day," which is a remembrance of Cowtown's western roots and beginnings. Activities that will be on display in Cotton-Eyed Frog Alley-located on the east side of Amon G. Carter Stadium-include cutting horse demonstrations, live bands, dancing, interactive games and numerous arts and crafts exhibits. The events begin at high noon and are free to the public. The first 15,000 fans in the gates will also receive a free purple bandanna.
TCU's Link, who has been working in the Ranch Management Program for over 25 years, was selected the Most Outstanding TCU Ranch Management Alum by the program's board of directors. A native of the Flint Hills region in Kansas, Link received a B.S. in business administration from the Sunflower State's Emporia State University before earning his MBA and a ranch management certificate from TCU.
Link managed trust and estate property for El Paso National Bank upon his graduation from TCU. He later joined Oppenheimer Industries, Inc., in Kansas City, Mo., where he served as assistant vice president and manager of the ranch management department. After overseeing the administration of nine client-owned ranches covering over one million acres in six different states for Oppenheimer, Link returned to Horned Frog country in 1976. He became the program's director in 1994.
No stranger to organizations related to the livestock and agriculture industry, Link currently holds offices on many boards and committees, including the National Cattleman's Beef Association's Beef Safety Committee, the Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show's Board of Directors and the State of Texas Department of Agriculture Prescribed Burning Board. Link also runs a stocker operation near Fort Worth and grazes stocker cattle in Kansas and feed cattle on the High Plains.
"Recognizing Jim Link is most appropriate in light of his national stature as a leader in ranching and agribusiness," said TCU Provost William H. Koehler. "Mr. Link has devoted his entire career to the excellent stewardship of the land and the resources we derive from it."
Mack was chosen as this year's Fort Worth Cowtown Legend by the Cowtown Committee. Nicknamed "The XM Satellite Cowboy" and radio's "Midnight Cowboy," Mack has been broadcasting out of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex since 1969. He has been featured in more publications and won more awards than any other country music d.j. in the world. In October 2002, he was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame, and he became a member of the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and the Texas Country Music Disk Jockey Hall of Fame in 1999. The Texas' Number One Country D.J. award recipient for over 30 years also has his named etched in Nashville's Country Music D.J. Hall of Fame.
Mack is recognized as one of the better songwriters in the nation as well. Over 60 artists, including Dean Martin, Conway Twitty, Jerry Lee Lewis and George Jones, have recorded his compositions. One of his most famous songs, "Blue," made LeAnn Rimes a star and earned him a Grammy Award for Country Song of the Year in 1997. Adding to the honor, Congress' Kay Granger presented Mack with the American flag that was flying over the United States Capitol the day he was given the Grammy.
Mack recently became a member of the Million-Air Club, a designation from Broadcast Music, Inc., bestowed upon songwriters when a composition is programmed over one million times on radio and television. His song "Drinking Champagne" has been recorded over 50 times by the likes of artists such as Ray Price and George Strait. Strait's recording of the tune was responsible for Mack receiving a Platinum Album, representing over one million copies sold. Another of Mack's songs, "Clinging to a Saving Hand," was recorded on Rimes' album "Inspirational Songs," which has sold over nine million copies.
