Cline celebrated as 2015 DASNR Champion at Honors Night

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

As a land-grant institution, Oklahoma State University has a responsibility to serve traditional students and people in Oklahoma, the nation and the world. The responsibility is driven, in part, by the support of alumni and friends of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

To recognize the efforts of a few of the major supporters of DASNR, who are not alumni, the division recently hosted DASNR Honors Night, where Linda Cline received her DASNR Champion designation.

Cline and her late husband Charles moved to Cushing, Oklahoma, in 1967, and in 1985 purchased acreage on which they planned to retire. They started with 17 horses and established the Char-Lin Ranch, which today is a renowned producer of registered quarter horses and Angus cattle.

“The Clines are a great example of how a land-grant institution should operate,” said Tom Coon, vice president, dean and director of DASNR. “They really had very little knowledge about horses, or keeping horses, and they just decided they wanted to get into it. It was through our faculty that they were actually able to train and learn how to become horse people and how to build not only their herd and all of the services they needed in support of the herd, but also how they could build a business.”

Their show horse operation earned more than 200 World and Reserve World Championships before downsizing. C.L. Buckley, their first buckskin colt, became a legend in the halter-horse industry, siring more World Champions in the buckskin associations than any other stallion in the registry.

Cline recently contributed funding for the Charles and Linda Cline Equine Teaching Center at OSU. The new facility will include a teaching barn with stalls for foaling mares, an indoor arena, classrooms, feed and tack rooms, and a wash rack and treatment area.

With a deep-rooted passion for students and giving them an opportunity to succeed, Cline is hopeful the center will make it possible for every student to take the equine classes they desire. Her vision for the center is more than just a facility. The center is for the students and will allow OSU faculty and staff to better prepare them for a lifetime in the equine industry.

The facility will provide meeting space for the Equine Advisory Committee, 4-H Horse Council, workshops and meetings. The indoor arena will host teaching and training classes, hands-on labs, judging team practice, and year-round workshops, clinics and demonstrations without fear of weather issues.

“I'm really excited to see it,” Coon said. “It's not only addressing our on-campus student needs but also our off-campus delivery of programs.”

While neither Cline attended OSU, they credited much of their success to the faculty’s willingness to visit the ranch, work with the family and teach them about the horse business. They became passionate for the university where their daughter, Amy, earned a journalism degree and their son, Cary, has two daughters who are current students.

Also recognized as 2015 DASNR Champions were Rita Sparks and John Williams.