Autobiography - The Galindo Group

Ram Galindo THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN Page 229
I reasoned that if we organized our own events we might be able to attract competitors
from outside our community. Many of my athletic friends agreed and we decided to
organize first the Texas Straight Shot, a 10 K race running right through our main street.
After its successful completion, we organized the Texas Triathlon - a 1 K pool swim
followed by a 10 K run, followed by a 30 K bike race. Both became such smashing
successes, pulling close to two thousand visitors each weekend, that we incorporated
the organization and made the events yearly occurrences. Lane Stephenson, Carl
Gabbard and Darlene Tulleen were among the first volunteers. I became the first
Chairman of the Bryan College Station Athletic Federation and held the office until
1985. For a few years we had quite a turn over in our management staff until my brother
Chris became its part time executive secretary after my departure from office. He
brought reliability and permanence to the organization, which lasted until he resigned in
the early 90s.
When I presented the idea to Chamber of Commerce leaders to incorporate the athletic
organization separately, I told them that we wanted to put Bryan-College Station on the
athletic map of Texas. For our first Texas Triathlon we were able to attract a few
national caliber athletes, which merited write-ups in some Texas’ major newspapers.
Even the in-flight magazine for Continental Airlines carried an article on what we were
doing. One of the famous athletes who helped us achieve notoriety was John Howard
who was fresh from winning the Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon. He later became
interested in wind research and became the fastest man on a bicycle. What was
remarkable is that we attracted major athletes without offering prize money.
The weekends of our events we filled every hotel room in town, to the delight of hotel
operators and the cities that collected a hotel-motel tax. I floated the idea to make our
operations totally self-supported and resist any influx of tax monies, but we received an
offer that my colleagues could not refuse. The thankfulness of both cities and the hotel
owners was obvious when they voted to fund our organization to promote more similar
events. Despite my misgivings, my colleagues on the board were eager to accept these
funds, with its attached strings.
As a result we organized an annual mini-Olympics among local business organizations.
It helped create more awareness of the benefits of physical fitness and the financial
value it brought to our community. It also gave our organization deeper roots among the
towns’ leaders. We had a lot of fun competing with each other and we formed some
healthy rivalries among entrepreneurial companies, TAMU’s departments, and larger
companies, each in its own division. Drawing participants from employees in Chris’
engineering company, R. A. Galindo, Inc., Aerofit and Western National Bank, the
Galindo Group was well represented. I must say that we were consistent winners in our
division. The Bryan College Station Athletic Federation became a significant driver of
hotel motel occupancy in the decade of the 80s and early 90s. It also provided an
opportunity to many willing athletes, who by serving on its board, assumed posts of
leadership in efforts to improve the economics of our town.
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