History
In the late 1930s, Cal Farley was playing semiprofessional baseball by day and wrestling by night in Amarillo, Texas. Mr. Farley, was a fan favorite at the ballpark, where he would deliberately hit foul balls over the fence to children gathered there, knowing they could exchange these balls for a free ticket to the game. Mr. Farley realized some of these children were hanging around the ballpark when they should have been in school, and he soon found many of them came from broken homes where guidance, supervision and love often were missing. Mr. Farley began looking for ways to help these children and, in the fall of 1938, Texas Panhandle rancher Julian Bivins agreed to support the cause. Bivins donated about 120 acres of land 36 miles northwest of Amarillo Cal Farley established his Boys Ranch on land that long before had been home to Tascosa, a raucous pioneer town.
Specialties
Nestled in the rolling hills northwest of Amarillo, Texas, Cal Farley's Boys Ranch is a residential community open to at-risk children ages 5 to 18. While, at first glance, the campus might appear much like any other Texas Panhandle town, it is much more. Boys Ranch is an entire community built to surround children from across the nation with nurturing support and structure.