Terrel Vineyard was a cowboy through and through. The 27-year-old Oshkosh native was killed tragically in June of 2023 when he was struck by lightning doing what he loved the most: riding his horse in the Nebraska Sandhills.
To honor his legacy, the Terrel Vineyard Memorial Roping is being held Sunday, August 11th, at the Haythorn Ranch near Arthur, Nebraska. The roping will raise funds for the Terrel Vineyard Memorial Scholarship Fund, which hopes to award two scholarships each year.
“We are sitting on our hands right now because we don’t know what kind of funds we are working with,” said his father, Shawn Vineyard. “We are hoping to do a scholarship for a Garden County kid, and another for a Nebraskan headed to Cheyenne to rodeo, which is what Terrel did.”
Two halves of beef will be auctioned off in support of the scholarship fund. The beef for this auction has been donated by Rush Creek Land & Livestock and will be processed by Rush Creek South. Additionally, two handmade knives have been donated by the Ryan Sexson family. These knives were hand crafted by Kyle Lunneborg of Circle K Cutters. Bids for the halves of beef and the knives can be made on the Terrel Vineyard Memorial Roping Facebook page.
Shawn says the memorial roping and scholarship fund will be pay homage to his son’s legacy.
“There was something special about him. Being his dad, I am of course biased, but looking back, we were not the only ones who felt that way,” he said.
Entries will close at 8:40am on Sunday, with the roping to begin at 9am. More information about the roping can be found on the event’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558581332909
Listen to our interview with Terrel’s father, Shawn Vineyard here:
