Hondo Crouch 1916-1976
Posted by: 
linkys
N 30° 10.735 W 098° 45.383
14R E 523454 N 3338636
Hondo brought to life the motto, "Everybody's Somebody in Luckenbach."
Waymark Code: WM3956
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 02/28/2008
Views: 105
Not all famous people were the fathers of their country or the person who invented some mechanism that changed our lives. Some were ordinary people who had an extraordinary dream. John Russell Crouch, nicknamed "Hondo", was one of the latter.
All-American swimmer at the University of Texas, sheep and goat rancher, president of the University of Texas Athletic Hall of Fame and newspaper columnist who was married to the daughter of the 1945 "Goat King of the World", he was a man who enjoyed life. Then at the age of 54 when most people are thinking about retirement in a few years, Hondo decided to buy a tiny Texas town, and the rest as they say is history.
Having what might best be described as an over-active imagination, Hondo set out to promote his new acquisition. As word spread that Luckenbach wasn't just your ordinary, extra-ordinary place, more and more people began to visit. With Hondo's business card reading "Imagineer", people didn't simply visit, you might say they also fell under the magic that was Luckenbach.
Hondo died of a heart attack in 1976, and maybe not even he could have imagined what would happen to Luckenbach in just another year, 1977. That was the year a pair of songwriters, Bobby Emmons and Chips Moman, wrote "Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics)" which became a monster hit for Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. It brought Luckenbach worldwide fame, with tour buses and tourists from around the world flocking to see the town, only a man like John Russell "Hondo" Crouch could have imagined.
John Russell "Hondo" Crouch 1916-1976, a man who truly was larger than life.
