Luck of the draw.

In myyouth I could draw a little and for years harbored dreams of becoming acommercial artist. But I lacked the patience required to be good at it.However, I would still draw sketchy cartoons and other drawings on occasion andthat came in handy at times. As you might imagine, cowboys were most often thesubjects of my scribbles. I have included a few examples tucked away from mycollege days.

First is asmall-space teaser ad for an upcoming Utah State University rodeo, and a laterad for the same. (Those two are from photocopies using ancient 1970s technologyso are rougher than the originals.)

Thereasons escape me, but the Weber State College and Brigham Young Universityrodeo teams asked my assistance, and I made a cover for the WSC rodeo programand a handbill for the BYU rodeo.

Thesignature on the illustrations reads “Mini” which is another story. When Ishowed up at USU way back then I was considerably smaller than I am now, andone of the Rounders there—Marlow Carrol, if memory serves—dubbed me the “MiniCowboy” so “Mini” was how I was known for several years.

Ieventually outgrew the appellation in more ways than one.