Past Oratorical Contest Winners - Battle of Flowers Association

Since 1926, students from 19 Texas schools have won the Battle of Flowers Oratorical Contest: Abilene Christian University (4), Baylor University (3), Lamar University (2), Laredo College, McMurry University, Northwest Vista College, Our Lady of the Lake University (2), Panola College, San Antonio College (5), St. Mary’s University (2), Stephen F. Austin State University, Temple College, Texas A&M University (2), Texas Christian University (4), Texas State University (7), Trinity University (6), University of Texas at Austin (50), University of Texas – Pan American, and the University of Texas at San Antonio (6).

YEAR	WINNER	SCHOOL	SPEECH
2025	Jacqueline Garcia Torres	Abilene Christian University	The Lone Star to the Stars: How Texans Led the Race to Space
2024	Emi Pablico	Abilene Christian University	A Marriage of Equals: Tradition and Modernism in O’Neil Ford’s Little Chapel-in-the-Woods
2023	Hailey Pasley	Abilene Christian University	Hortense Sparks Ward: Wins for the Women Who Came After Her
2022	Emma Jaax	Abilene Christian University	The Fortune of the Unfortunate:The 1921 Central Texas Flood’s Legacy of Death and Life
2021	Vivian Noyd	Texas Christian University	Women’s News Makes the News: The Story of VIvian Castleberry
2020	Michael Brown	Texas Christian University	A Tiger by the Tail: Tex Hill and the Flying Tigers
2019	Reagan Sullivan	McMurry University	The Eagle Has Landed: How the Johnson Space Center Changed the Course of Texas History
2018	Amber Bell Finch	University of Texas – Austin	The Cattle Queen – The Life of a Woman Rancher
2017	Kaitlyn Gibbens	Baylor University	The Jewel at the Bottom of the Mountains: Fort Davis
2016	John G. Biebighauser, Jr.	Texas Christian University	The Sharpest “Bowie” Knife
2015	Ross Rasberry	Texas State University	Sugar Cane, Rum, Politics and Oil: Nowhere but Texas
2014	Taylor Dodson	Baylor University	Waco Village: The Truth Through Myth
2013	Zoe Christiansen Waswick	Texas A&M University	Texas Black Gold
2012	Brianne Giese	Texas State University	The Goodnight-Loving Trail
2011	Chelsea McClure	Texas State University	William Alvin “Monty” Moncrief: The Granddaddy of Them All
2010	Laura Driver	Texas State University	Oil and the Philanthropic Legacy of Ella Fondren
2009	Grayson Hamilton	Trinity University	Sam Houston: Twilight on the Raven
2008	Christopher A. Crawford	Trinity University	Rangers Under Fire: Defending Ranger Honor
2007	Kendall Ryan	Northwest Vista College	Mission San José: A Mission of Destiny
2006	Trish Bode	Texas State University	Miss Ima Hogg: The Gift to Texas
2005	Brett Owen	University of Texas – San Antonio	José Antonio Navarro: A True Texan
2004	Leah Chaney	Texas State University	Sally Skull: One Tough Southern Woman
2003	Jimmy Ficaro	University of Texas – Austin	Barbed Wire: From the Wild Frontier to Southfork
2002	Jennifer Aguilar	University of Texas – San Antonio	Legacy of Courage
2001	Tiffany Hunt	University of Texas – San Antonio	The Big State That Could
2000	Billy Wiggins	Lamar University	A Ranger and His Legacy
1999	Timothy G. Wilkins	University of Texas – San Antonio	The Living History of San Antonio
1998	Jenni Beth Walters Hagdorn	University of Texas – San Antonio	Women of the Alamo: Messengers of Liberty
1997	Dannette Mitchell	Lamar University	The Road Well Traveled
1996	Sarah Mammarella Looper	San Antonio College	James K. Polk – Stubborn as a Mule
1995	Amber Leah Slayton	Panola College	A Texas Family that “Slaughtered” the Odds
1994	Ron Guilbot	University of Texas – Pan American	Spindletop – Beginning of an Era
1993	Jim Brazell	San Antonio College	Roy Bean: A Legend in his Own Mind
1992	Maria Christina Gutierrez-Boswell	Laredo College	La Llorona
1991	Jessica Whitacre Thorne	Trinity University	Edith Black Winslow: Pioneering the Texas Transition (1890-1900)
1990	Curt Simmons	Stephen F. Austin State University	In Search of a New Life, the Story of the Parker Family
1989	John Martinez	Texas A&M University	Apollo and Saint Hyacinth
1988	Richard Salas	San Antonio College	The Meir Expedition
1987	Linda Russe Good	Temple College	A Connecticut Yankee in the New Republic
1986	Laura Cutshaw Cunningham	Trinity University	Everybody’s Searching for a Hero
1985	Oscar Luis Cantu, Jr.	University of Texas – Austin	A Tradition of Greatness
1984	Leigh Treiber Mammarella	San Antonio College	Samuel Maverick – Texan: The Signers of the Texas Decleration of Independence
1983	Wendy Lee Sheldon	Trinity University	Empty and Waiting
1982	Peggy Attridge	Our Lady of the Lake University	New Homes in a New Land, the Promise of Texas
1981	Edward G. Conroy, Jr.	University of Texas – San Antonio	Texas Culture, Hispanic Flower
1980	Karl Hays	St. Mary’s University	Texas Spirit of the Sea
1979	Diane T. Gonzales	San Antonio College	The Spirit of José Navarro–A Perspective of Time
1978	Mark Edwards	University of Texas – Austin	A German Boy in the Texas Revolution
1977	Brian Carpenter	University of Texas – Austin	J. Frank Dobie, Spaces Without Confines, Times Beyond Contagion
1976	Lannis Temple	University of Texas – Austin	The Spirit of ’36
1975	Elizabeth Bell	University of Texas – Austin	Jane Long Waited
1974	Bonnie Higgins Watkins	University of Texas – Austin	The Melting Pot of Texas
1973	Phillip Stevens	Southwest Texas State University (TXST)	Texas Had, Have and Will Have Religion
1972	Jerre Burrus	University of Texas – Austin	The Living Background
1971	Kirk McManus	Trinity University	The Legacy
1970	Scott Wells	Texas Christian University	A Few Blocks Away
1969	Nancy Biehler	Our Lady of the Lake University	The Two Hundred Seventy-Seven History Forgot
1968	David John Andrews	University of Texas – Austin	A Time to Stand
1967	Robert C. Prather, Jr.	University of Texas – Austin	Their Lasting Legacy (The King Ranch)
1966	Juventino Guerra, Jr.	St. Mary’s University	The Sixtieth Man
1965	Carole Pope VanScoy	Baylor University	Texas is Cattle
1964	Dean Rindy	University of Texas – Austin	A Question of Values
1963	Mack Kidd	University of Texas – Austin	Every Little Part
1962	Leon Graham	University of Texas – Austin	Texas Navy
1961	Virginia Venable Kidd	University of Texas – Austin	The Challenge of the Deguello
1960	Gregory O. Lipscomb	University of Texas – Austin	The Texas Navy at War for Independence
1959	Aimalee Cartee	University of Texas – Austin	For Texas
1958	H. G. Wells	University of Texas – Austin	Concept of Freedom
1957	Dean Davis	University of Texas – Austin	Did They Live?
1956	William Wright	University of Texas – Austin	The Feel of Freedom
1955	Patric McDonald	University of Texas – Austin	Why We Are Proud to be Texans
1954	Elizabeth Elaine Aniol	University of Texas – Austin	Mrs. Sam Houston, the Forgotten Woman
1953	John C. Barber	University of Texas – Austin	With a Song in Their Hearts
1952	John Wild	University of Texas – Austin	Texas, Yesterday and Today
1951	Gay Empress Zedler	University of Texas – Austin	Today Our Debt is Due
1950	Jack Yonge	University of Texas – Austin	Texas in Our Blood
1949	Sam Henry Smith	University of Texas – Austin	The Warp and Woof
1948	Ronnie Dugger	University of Texas – Austin	The Little People
1947	Jack Skaggs	University of Texas – Austin	The Sky’s the Limit
1946	Rissell Sahm	University of Texas – Austin	The Spirit of the Alamo
1945	Jack Terrell	University of Texas – Austin	Let us Learn from San Jacinto
1944	Ed Cohen	University of Texas – Austin	The Lamp of Experience
1943	Ted Monzano	University of Texas – Austin	Antonio, the Cabin Boy
1942	Rosemary Dunkleburg	University of Texas – Austin	The Spirit of Texas
1941	Laura Wilson	University of Texas – Austin	Forgotten Men
1940	Leslie Proctor	University of Texas – Austin	The Heritage of Liberty
1939	Fred H. Schmidt	University of Texas – Austin	The Texas Navy
1938	John Stephen	University of Texas – Austin	The Great American Desert
1937	Elizabeth Stuart	University of Texas – Austin	Texas Legends
1936	Joe W. Neal	University of Texas – Austin	Heroes Without Names
1935	Gus G. Garica	University of Texas – Austin	Bridge Builders of Civilization
1934	Frank Knapp	University of Texas – Austin	Dreams and Visions
1933	Warren Wood	University of Texas – Austin	A Plea for Practical Idealism
1932	Jesse Villarreal	University of Texas – Austin	Founder and Preserver
1931	Scott Hughes	University of Texas – Austin	A New Force in Texas
1930	Bennett Lay	University of Texas – Austin	The Preservation of Texas Identity
1929	Fleming A. Waters	University of Texas – Austin	The Development of Texas Nationalism
1928	William R. Ryan	University of Texas – Austin	Our Heritage of Heroism
1927	Empress Young Zedler	University of Texas – Austin	The Pioneer Women of Texas
1926	Percy E. Foreman	University of Texas – Austin	Stephen F. Austin