The Will Rogers Memorial Center (WRMC) is an 85-acre (0.34 km2) public entertainment, sports and livestock complex located in Fort Worth, Texas (USA). The complex is named for American humorist and writer Will Rogers. The WRMC is the home of the annual Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. It is a popular location for the hosting of specialized livestock shows, including the annual World Exposition of the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association of America, the annual World Championship Paint Horse Show, and 3 major events of the National Cutting Horse Association (NCHA) each year. It is also the former home of the Fort Worth Texans ice hockey team. Events at the WRMC attract over 2 million visitors annually. The complex contains the following facilities:
- Will Rogers Coliseum
- Will Rogers Auditorium
- Will Rogers Equestrian Center
- Amon G. Carter Jr. Exhibits Hall
- James L. & Eunice West Arena
- John Justin Arena
- W. R. Watt Arena
The Memorial Center was built in 1936 and designed by architect Wyatt C. Hedrick, who employed the Moderne (Art Deco) style. Also in 1936 Amon G. Carter commissioned Electra Waggoner Biggs to create the statue Riding into the Sunset, a tribute to Will Rogers and his horse Soapsuds. Over a decade later, in 1947, the work was unveiled at the Center.
Famous quotes containing the words rogers, memorial and/or center:
“Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.”
—Will Rogers (1879–1935)
“When I received this [coronation] ring I solemnly bound myself in marriage to the realm; and it will be quite sufficient for the memorial of my name and for my glory, if, when I die, an inscription be engraved on a marble tomb, saying, “Here lieth Elizabeth, which reigned a virgin, and died a virgin.””
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)