For the past fifty plus years, Angie Watts Averhoff has been a winner at every level of rodeo competition – junior, college, amateur and professional. She won her first AJRA world championship at the age of twelve in optional roping (breakaway and ribbon roping) (1960). That was soon followed by more AJRA world championships in optional roping (1962) and optional race (pole bending and flag race) (1963 and 1964). She was also the Reserve World Champion AJRA All Around Cowgirl (1963). Raised in a blue collar, working-class family in Waco, TX, she often paid her entry fees by running ribbons.
Her Tarleton State College rodeo team won the NIRA Southwest Region and National Championships in 1969 (Deadwood, SD) and 1970 (Bozeman, MT). She was the National Champion NIRA Goat Tyer in 1969 and the Southwest Region Champion Goat Tyer in 1970, and won the All Around at the College National Finals in 1969 and 1970. She was inducted into the Cowboy Capitol Walk of Fame in Stephenville, TX in 2000 and will be among the first group of inductees into the newly established Tarleton State University Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2012.
A many times qualifier for the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association All Girls National Finals (1981- 87, and 1994-96), she competed in calf roping, team roping and steer undecorating. She is a former Women’s National Finals average winner and served as Steer Undecorating Director for a number of years. She is also a former member of the Texas Barrel Racing Association, the Bud Light Team Roping Association and the Old Timers’ Rodeo Association and participated in their finals.
Other wins in amateur and professional ranks include the following:
While putting her now-deceased husband Bill through vet school, Angie taught political science and was coach/advisor of the rodeo teams at Texas A&M University. The men’s team (including Bill) finished second in the Southern Region and qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo in Bozeman, MT in 1977.
Always a coach at heart, Angie has taught numerous girls to tie goats. When her daughter Lacy and niece Rachel competed, she co-sponsored the Boswell High School Rodeo team and put on free clinics at the North Texas High School Rodeo Association for a number of years.
After coming back from the loss of a thumb in a team roping accident in 2008 and hip replacement in 2011, Angie is still a competitive team roper at the age of sixty four in the USTRC and the OTRA. She recently placed in the all girl roping at the prestigious Windy Ryon Memorial Roping.
With a bachelor’s degree from Tarleton and a master’s degree from Texas A&M, Angie enjoyed a distinguished thirty-eight year career as a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent. As a principal, her school won many state and national awards, earning the highest rating awarded by the Texas Education Agency, and being named by Texas Monthly as a four-star school (its highest rating). She was named Educator of the Year by several community organizations. Upon her retirement the library at her former school was named the Angie Averhoff Library. Now she enjoys spending time with her grandchildren, traveling and roping.
A thirty-four year Saginaw-area resident, Angie has served the community in a variety of areas including the Methodist Church, Kiwanis Club, and Meals on Wheels. She hosts an annual reunion of old cowgirls known as the Old Broads’ Club.
In summary, Angie Watts Averhoff has been a winner inside and outside of the arena. She has been a positive influence on the lives of thousands of Texas public school students and is the epitome of the cowgirl spirit.