​How we came to be!

The club was started in January 1969, under the name of “Randy’s Rodeo Regulars”, by six people. They were: Jan Burney, Pat Halpin, Sara Lynn Mathews, G.L. “Crash” Stewart, Betty Watson (Smith) & Ron Wolfe. We met once a month at Randy Sherwood’s “Randy’s Rodeo”. Betty Watson was our first President for the first several months and then stepped down because she did not go along with things that Randy Sherwood wanted the club to do.

We put on our first trail ride in October 1969. We camped on Loop 1604 and San Pedro, as that was “way out in the country” at the time. We rode to Bandera Rd. and Loop 410 also still “out in the country” and camped next to the old Bandera Rd. Drive-In Theater, on land owned by Edgar Von Scheele Sr. Mr. Von Scheele and later his son, let us use this site from 1969 for other rides up to 1978. We had changed our route and no longer needed the campsite which had served us well for many years. I will always remember their graciousness and kindness.

Never once did they ask for any money or recognition. On this ride it rained cats and dogs while we were on the trail. None of us had raincoats and we all got soaked. That Sunday night we tried to dry out and had a big dance at Randy’s. As you can see not much has changed in the weather department and this is why I always preach “to bring your raincoats!”

Bill Robertson had about twenty head of horses that he had loaned out to different people. At the end of the ride when it was time to go home, Bill was left with all the horses to haul home by himself. Bill always brought at least ten to fifteen people with him for many of those early trail rides, which helped us have a good turnout. Bill helped us for many years and only in the last couple of years has not made a ride.

We put on a club dance once a month at Randy’s, hiring bands such as Johnny Bush, George Chambers, Lee Harmon, Darrell McCall, and others. We charged a flat fee to get in and beer was free all night. We made some money doing this.

In the spring of 1970, around April or May, things had again changed at Randy’s. We held a meeting at Bill Schroch’s home, away from Randy’s for the first time ever, and as President I suggested that we consider leaving Randy’s Rodeo. After a month or so of discussion we voted to leave Randy’s Rodeo. Needless to say this was a big step to take and not everyone was in favor of the move. Most everyone stayed in the new club which we voted to give the name of “Alamo Kountry Kickers”.

We felt this would tell everyone where we were from and that we were western oriented. We did all this without a “Name the Club” study or city wide contest. Our logo was designed by Kathy Friesenhahn’s nephew and was selected over several other designs.

Within the first two years of forming the AKK, a few of the people who were against us leaving or were at least neutral, started two different “Randy’s Rodeo Regulars” (Triple R or “RRR” as we called it). They all tried hard to make the new RRR work, but failed each time. Without Randy Sherwood and Randy’s Rodeo this club may not have ever happened, but it was just time to leave or not survive.

Some of us had been in the “Bandera Regulars” and in the “Junction Regulars” and had some experience in running this type of club and organizing trail rides and dances.

Marlene Borgfeld, Jack Estes, Kathy Friesenhahn, Pat and Gary Knutson, Gerry Manka Halpin, as well as Rita and Barney Urias were all off the RRR and were very active from the start, later serving in many different offices. Pat Knutson is the only person at this time to have served in all four elected offices.

The OCR was enhanced and expanded below from the original screenshot. Some words and names may still contain minor recognition errors due to the narrow low-resolution image, but this version preserves much more of the original article wording:

We continued putting on club dances at various places such as Ball Hall’s “Golden Stallion” and at Lee Harmon’s “The Junction”. Some of us helped put on a ride in April 1971 and 1972 for Johnny Bush. He decided not to have one in 1973, so I asked if we as a club could continue having it under the club name as John did not have the time to get involved with it. So started our spring ride.

We had our first summer ride July 20-21, 1974. We started at San Geronimo, Texas and camped at Lottie Margaret Martinez’s “Pete’s Place” — named after her Dad. We rode to the ranch that my Grandparents owned when I was a child and had spent many years on. We went swimming in the pool there on the ranch and had our dance at John T. Flores Country Store that night. We then rode into San Antonio the next day. Nolan Ferguson nicknamed this ride the “Champagne Ride”. The nickname stuck for many years. Later that summer of 1974 Nolan got me into big trouble.

We were talking one Sunday on the telephone, as we did many times, and we were both thinking about how it would be nice to have a February ride up in the Hill Country. By Wednesday I had contacted all the Chamber of Commerce and Sheriff’s Departments from Kerrville to San Antonio. That afternoon I made the first of many trips to the Kerrville area to plan the first “Kerr Country Trail Ride” for the 1975 San Antonio Livestock Show and Exposition (SALE).

Because of some rules in existence at the time it was five years before we and the Mesquite Trail Ride were officially recognized by SALE. It was a long wait that I was personally glad was over. We got lots of good natured ribbing from everyone including some Stock Show officials and especially Harrell Banks and Jud Ashmore from K-BUC calling us “The Outlaw Trail Ride”. Many people helped us become officially recognized five years later for the Stock Show.

I had ridden on the South Texas Trail Ride from Corpus Christi since 1967, with Howard Sculting as Trail Boss. Several years later Nolan, Jack Lawrence and Bill Robertson were among others who would also join S.T.T.R. I had gone as just a rider for several years, then one year driving the sound truck because of the death of Bobby Layton’s Aunt and then in February 1974 as drag scout the whole way. We had many friends and many good times there and we would miss them.

In June of 1978 we staged our first open horse show. We donated ALL the money to the Boysville 4-H, under the direction of Nubi Jones. The boys would buy their animals, raise and sell them and pay the money back into the fund that we started.

In October 1976, we bought the sound truck from Pearl Brewery and used it on the Camp Verde to Kerrville ride. Walter “Sonny” Karger had been our sound truck driver almost from the start. He and Signa “Sig” had also been going on the South Texas Trail Ride since 1967. Sonny drove for us until his death on March 30, 1982.

Carl Burris then took over and drove until his job conflicted. Carl was responsible for getting permission to go cross country on the northern edge of Camp Bullis. This single move made it possible to eliminate riding on Loop 1604.

We then were lucky enough to have Ray Krewe take over in 1984. Ray worked for Lone Star for many years after retiring as a Major in the Air Force. He was a pilot in WWII. While speaking of Lone Star and Pearl, everyone should be aware that both breweries were very instrumental with trail rides years ago and still try to help today.

Many people worked for others and us. Some of the familiar names back then and still today are Frank Andrews, Chuck Davenport, Mr. M.J. Dickenhorst, Aubrey Kline, Bobby Layton, Lloyd Mann, Bob Marsh, Jack Poenec, Chuck Rembling “Doc” Tuggle, and George Wilke from Pearl.

From Lone Star were Dan Davenport, Glenn Doerr, Harmon Harrison, Dean King, Benny Reando, Jerry Retzloff, Bill Roth and Sam Sawyer. There have been many people that have spent much time and energy helping the club and I wish I could mention every one here.

Some other such people that have gone the extra mile not previously mentioned are Mary and Jr. Brunner, Curty and Tinker Dunn, Dian Elrod, Barbara Fling, Andy and Rae Fritz, Larry Heineman, Lee Jobe, Ingrid Miller, Rowine Miller, Linda Moore Parsons, Belinda and Richard Schwarz, Gary “Scotty” Scott, Fran and Russ Sells, Betsy Tobin, Rita Urias, Sam Villarreal, Joe Whitehead and of course Jack Lawrence.

The club has had a major effect on many lives over the last twenty-three years including my own. I just hope that as the years go by we continue to preserve the traditions, friendships and safety that have always been such an important part of the Alamo Kountry Kickers.

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“All the changes were improvements overall and I do not think we have had to compromise quality for any of this. The best part is that during the weeklong ride and all our weekend trail rides (90 trail rides total to date) we have had almost no accidents. Safety has been and always will be our chief concern.”