History of the STLA
1970's: The Early Years

A New Charter

The South Texas Longhorn Association filed its 501C Charter with the State of Texas in April of l975. The group was organized and active in the early 1970's. The STLA was the first affiliate ever formed in the Texas Longhorn Breeders Association. Founders Charlie Schreiner, III and H.C. Carter met with great opposition from breeders Jack Phillips, Happy Shahan and Walter Scott due to their fears the affiliate would become a split-off group from the TLBAA. Mr. Carter had to assure the affiliate's loyalty by requiring its members to also be members of the TLBAA and promising the STLA would never issue registrations. Founding members included: Charles Schreiner III, Walter R. Schreiner, R.J. Snow Jr., H.C. Carter, John T. and Betty Baker, Alan Sparger, Jr. A.C. and C.M. Rubey, and Chico Wright.

In the early days, their logo was the shape of the entire country with the lower twenty-one states in the Union shaded, indicating their coverage area. The second affiliate formed at that time was the Mountains and Plains group that shared many of the same members. The STLA held its first sale with auctioneer Eddie Wood in 1974. The average price for cattle was $435 per head. The 1975 sale average rose to $600 per head and the members were ecstatic. Consignment cattle were inspected by H.C. Carter and John T. Baker and accepted or rejected on conformation. The pair flew all over the state visiting the ranches of consignors for the first three sales. Consigners to the First Annual South Texas Longhorn Association Sale held May 24, 1974 were: Elvin Blevins, H.C. Carter Maudeen Marks, Jack Phillips, Charlie Schreiner III, Walter Scott, Alan Sparger, Russell Stanger, J.T. Suggs, Jim Warren, and Eddie Wood. The first sale was held at the YO Ranch in Mountain Home, where a $3 per plate bar-be- cue lunch (benefiting the Kerr County 4-H Club), was served prior to the auction. Six more annual STLA sales were held at the YO before they moved to different cities around the state. Those first sales evolved into the annual YO Sale in later years. Other early STLA members included: Leonard Stiles, Dave Evans, Mike Crocker, Cliff and Gail Woemer, C.Q. Davis, J.W. Isaacs, Dr. L.V. Baker, Don and Velna Jackson, Charlie Schreiner IV, Marshall and Shirley Frazier, David Karizer, Travis Marks, Brian Bullen, J.D. Vann, and Dr. William Dean II.

The first General Membership Meeting was held in San Antonio on a shoestring budget in 1975. The STLA hosted a nine-day long cattle drive in 1976 that began in downtown San Antonio driving North across the Guadalupe River and through the cities of Kerrville, San Angelo, Midland and Stanton, on its way to Lubbock for the grand opening of the Western Heritage Center on July 4. Lady Bird Johnson was present to receive the Drovers' Logue Book. The event was filmed by Texas Tech University. The STLA hosted annual cattle sales for the first eleven years. The treasury in May of 1977 after a successful sale, held $86,000. By 1978, the membership had grown to over one hundred persons including: Herman Bennett, Tom Chandler, Richard Chris, Cliff Teinert, Larry Whipps, Happy Shahan, Ray Moore, Bob and Linda Moore, Stan Searle and Darol Dickinson. Dickinson consigned a bull "Texas Star," to the '78 STLA sale that sold for $10,500 to Judy Jenkins. That was a record high for any Longhorn in the sale ring. Average sale price at that sale was $1,560. The 1979 annual sale average was a record high $3,716 with twenty-two lots bringing an excess of $5,000.

>>> 1980's: The Colorful, Political, High-rolling, Years