THE SCHOLARSHIP SCRAMBLE
Cagan Baldree admits to feeling nervous, walking into the packed NRG Stadium for the calf scramble at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
Each night of the event, 30 teens go into hot pursuit of 15 calves, which they only have eight minutes to catch, halter and drag across the finish line.
Baldree was aware that the task was difficult — and that thousands of spectators would be watching.
But he also felt like he had an edge. Baldree played sports for as long as he could remember in his hometown of Carthage and took up football in middle school. Crowded stadiums full of distractions were familiar to him — and he knew how to tune everything else out and concentrate on just the football and reaching the goal.
Baldree was also no stranger to running, tackling or landing in the mud. On top of that, he grew up on a farm with cattle.
“I wasn’t scared to be physical or to get a little down and dirty,” he recalled. “And I wasn’t shy to get in there with them.”
In fact, he wanted to be the first to catch his calf — and settled into gear, becoming one of the fastest competitors to reach the herd.
“I jumped on the back of a calf and rolled on it,” he said.
There was one problem — he knocked the calf out. After volunteers sprayed water on the animal’s face, he was up and running, and together, they completed the task right on time.
Now, as a 21-year-old senior at Texas A&M University, Baldree enjoys looking back and sharing the entertaining calfscramble story with friends.
He grows more serious when discussing what happened next — winning the $1,750 award, then raising a heifer and returning the following year to exhibit. The experience taught him valuable lessons about responsibility, discipline and perseverance, he explained.
Later, when Baldree was ready for college, he won the Rodeo’s 2016 Area Go Texan scholarship for $18,000. In 2019, he received the Achievement Scholarship for $8,000, an award for current rodeo scholars who have achieved academic excellence in their college career.
Baldree is now a fullback on the Aggie football team and said that the scholarship is what made it all possible.
“It was a huge deal,” Baldree said. “If it wouldn’t have been for that scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to play football. It would have been too much of a financial burden to bear. I can’t say enough about how the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo has molded me. It’s just a special organization that invests so much in students.”
Baldree is also enrolled in a dual program that allows him to graduate with a master’s degree in May. His undergraduate degree will be in agricultural economics and his master’s will in public service and administration.
“I would like to work at the state level to make things work in the future,” he said. “That’s my longtime goal, and Texas A&M helped me learn a lot that will help me down the road.”
Baldree also dreams of playing professionally in the NFL. “If it happens, it would be incredible,” he said.
Baldree hopes that other Four-H Club and National FFA Organization students will try their hand at catching a calf — or will apply for another opportunity at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
“Find something in the rodeo that you can invest yourself in,” he said. “It’s really limitless. They do this work so students like myself can tell these stories. What they do is so worthwhile.”
Amy Moroney, the rodeo’s senior director of educational programs, said that not everyone is aware of the scholarship opportunities.
“So many people who come don’t know about our education work,” she said. “We give away over $14 million each year to students.”
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is actually one of the largest scholarship providers in the nation, presenting more than 19,000 scholarships valued at more than $230 million since 1957.
Moroney was a recipient of a scholarship from the rodeo — before she went to work for the organization.
“I grew up in a small town, and I really wanted to go to Texas A&M,” she recalled. “I wouldn’t have been able to get my degree or anything else without that scholarship.”
The calf scramble, she explained, is an ideal way for a student to learn about the agricultural business. The deadline to apply is Dec. 1 of the year prior to the event.
The Area Go Texan Scholarship that Baldree received is available to students in public school districts in 68 participating counties. In 2020, the rodeo will award 79 four-year, $20,000 Area Go Texan Scholarships.
Moroney said that rodeo employees visit college campuses to meet the scholarship awardees and talk to them about their lives in school.
With the Alumni Association, which was launched in 2014, the rodeo can keep in touch with the scholars long after college.
“It’s so much fun to see our scholars and watch them grow — and know that we’re a small part of that,” Moroney said.