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:
“Parenting forces us to get to know ourselves better than we ever might have imagined we could—and in many new ways. . . . We’ll discover talents we never dreamed we had and fervently wish for others at moments we feel we desperately need them. As time goes on, we’ll probably discover that we have more to give and can give more than we ever imagined. But we’ll also find that there are limits to our giving, and that may be hard for us to accept.”
—Fred Rogers (20th century)
“I hope there will be no effort to put up a shaft or any monument of that sort in memory of me or of the other women who have given themselves to our work. The best kind of a memorial would be a school where girls could be taught everything useful that would help them to earn an honorable livelihood; where they could learn to do anything they were capable of, just as boys can. I would like to have lived to see such a school as that in every great city of the United States.”
—Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906)
“Children can’t be a center of life and a reason for being. They can be a thousand things that are delightful, interesting, satisfying, but they can’t be a wellspring to live from. Or they shouldn’t be.”
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)