Trick roper returning for Will’s birthday party

Kowboy Kal (Kalvin Cook of Apache) will entertain with his trick roping skills at the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch birthday party, Thursday, Nov. 4, from 9:30 to noon.

 

Kowboy Kal keeps coming back to Will Rogers’ roots. He was in Claremore the first time in 1993 for the Will Rogers Days Parade. That was before he pulled up stakes and went to Hollywood and embarked on an entertainment career.

The World’s Champion trick roper came back in 2004 for Will’s 125th birthday anniversary and a Rogers’ family reunion — and his popularity continues.

He is a regular at the Birthplace Ranch party and will be there on Thursday, Nov. 4, from 9:30 a.m. to noon, playing to several hundred elementary students and their parents and Will’s family and friends. This is one of his toughest crowds because many of the youngsters are novice trick ropers and nearly all are Will Rogers' fans. Kowboy Kal shares the program with Oologah-Talala students of Kim Grazier, who will present an original musical.

He learned to trick rope from his grandfather, who saw Will on stage, and from Will Rogers’ tapes and books of Will’s rope tricks.

He was working for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife fish hatcheries when he stuck it big on a television game show — or at least big enough he came back to Oklahoma and packed up his family and went to Hollywood. An actor by nature, his rope tricks and fast chatter have taken him to television, modeling jobs and hundreds of public appearances and entertainment venues.

He has played from Frontier City in Oklahoma City to California Knotts Berry Farms and for six consecutive years was host of the Rose Parade Equestrian Festival (all the horseback riders in the parade.) Kal entertained with whips, guns and ropes while they were waiting their turn to merge into the parade.

He was in the Oklahoma Centennial Parade, trick roped at the Oklahoma State capitol, and Claremore Will Rogers Downs Casino. He has been a Wild West Tech regular on the History Channel.

Kal held the world title for the Wild West Arts Club “biggest loop” for some time and was listed in the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records. He has numerous awards in trick roping and gun spinning.