Big Tex’s arrival marks the State Fair of Texas despite past heartbreak when he caught fire. The iconic cowboy’s resilience stirs Texan pride anew.<\/p>\n
DALLAS \u2014 The State Fair of Texas is just one week away, which means it\u2019s almost time for a familiar voice to boom across Fair Park: \u201cHowdy!\u201d<\/p>\n
For 74 years, Big Tex has greeted fairgoers from high above the crowds. The 55-foot-tall cowboy has become one of the most recognizable symbols of the State Fair of Texas \u2014 and a beloved part of Texas tradition.<\/p>\n
One thing, however, has remained the same:<\/p>\n
\u201cBig Tex is mighty proud to see ya.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Texans have made it clear they\u2019re pretty proud to see him, too.<\/p>\n
In 2012, Big Tex celebrated his 60th birthday. To mark the occasion, WFAA\u2019s Cynthia Izaguirre and Greg Fields took to the air to deliver him a birthday cake.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know you wanted it deep-fried with all the corny dogs, but this is the best we can do,\u201d Fields said.<\/p>\n
Then, just one week after the celebration, disaster struck. Big Tex caught fire. His clothes burned away as the iconic cowboy went up in flames at the fairgrounds.<\/p>\n
For many Texans, the sight was heartbreaking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never understood how important he was until the day he caught fire,\u201d one observer recalled. \u201cPeople were crying. They had their hands over their hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n
But even as Big Tex disappeared into smoke, the love for the Texas icon kept coming. Cards arrived. So did flowers \u2014 including bouquets made from corny dogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are actually wishing him a speedy recovery,\u201d one well-wisher said.<\/p>\n
The message was clear: Texans weren\u2019t ready to say goodbye. A year later, Big Tex was ready to make his return.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a new beginning because Big Tex will be rebuilt,\u201d officials said at the time.<\/p>\n
Now, as the State Fair of Texas prepares to open and Big Tex gets ready to take his familiar place over Fair Park once again, generations of fairgoers will look to the sky for a greeting they know by heart.<\/p>\n
And if Big Tex has taught Texans anything, it\u2019s that even after the toughest days, a Texas-sized comeback is always possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big Tex’s arrival marks the State Fair of Texas despite past heartbreak when he caught fire. The iconic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-441753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}