The Bull Shipper’s Award–the Highest Honor TLA Bestows? – Kathleen C. Jeffries

Association Business

The Bull Shipper’s Award — the Highest Honor TLA Bestows?

Twelve years ago, Fritz Damm regaled our readers with the history of the Transportation Lawyers Association’s beloved female recipient in recent times.6 Nevertheless, the award retains its glory as the highly coveted symbol of the artful gift of gab, the Bull Shipper’s Award.1 That is the award to which I referred in my recent presentation to our latest deserving recipient, Gordon McAuley, as the highest honor our organization has to bestow. Fritz suggested2 that it’s time for an update to his composition and, after much nudging, I acceded to his request.

The Bull Shipper’s Award was established in roughly 1951 to recognize “the biggest and best bull thrower of the year.”3 The award was presented each year through 1968 at the Annual Conference in what former TLA President Dick Champlin described as one of the highlights of the event. Trouble for the award began brewing in the mid-1960s, starting with a motion by a member of the organization that the presentation be discontinued because “it was beneath the dignity of the Association.” The motion narrowly failed, but within the next few years the award indeed met its demise for over 20 years.

In 1988, then-President Mike Ogborn reestablished what he referred to in his excellent article on how and why the Motor Carrier Lawyers Association transitioned to the current TLA in the 1980s,4 subKathleen C. Jeffries* mitted as part of Dick Westley’s decades-later series on the history of TLA and regulation of the motor carrier industry, as “the most sought-after, prestigious award in the history of the association.” He stated that the renewed annual award was intended for “the person deemed best deipnosophist.”5 The decision to revive the award was among those lofty objectives that he explained “were made in order to meet the changing times and achieve the goals set forth by the association to keep it viable, relevant and of value to the existing and future members.”

Notwithstanding (or perhaps as a reflection of) the prestige associated with the award, the current Bull Shipper’s Award trophy—topped with a human figure throwing a bull over his shoulder and bearing the names of the (mostly) worthy recipients from 1988 through today—is somewhat of an ostentatious display of bravado. It is impressive in its size and marble and brass composition, though somewhat bedraggled from years of being shipped, hand-carried and otherwise moved from conference to proud office display to conference. The bull is missing at least one hoof, the plaque containing the name of the award is bent and scratched, the marble is abraded in numerous places and one of the handles of the urn on which the bull shipper himself stands is held on by Scotch Tape. For the two most recent years, the human figure even wore a bright pink cocktail umbrella as a skirt in honor of yours truly, the first combination of verbal skill, imagination and occasionally even wit, traits we transportation lawyers highly regard in one another—or, quite frankly, whatever other characteristics the holder of the award chooses to focus on in selecting his or her successor. Who are the fortunate TLA members whose names have been etched into the splendid black name plaques on the trophy? The Millennium History lists the following recipients and years of presentation appearing on the current trophy: 1988: Richard H. Champlin 1989: Mike J. Ogborn 1990: Leonard R. Kofkin 1991: Miles L. Kavaller 1992: Michael L. Harvey 1994: Jeremy Kahn 1996: James F. Flint 1997: David R. Parker 1998: Kim D. Mann Fritz Damm’s 2009 article picked up from the end of that list, identifying the next seven names on the face of the trophy: 2000: David B. Schneider 2001: W. Robert Alderson 2003: Brian J. Smith 2005: Gordon M. Hearn 2006: Eric L. Zalud 2007: William D. Bierman 2008: Fritz R. Damm Since 2009, the following names have been added to the treasured accolade: 2010: Greg E. Summy 2011: Donald J. Vogel 2012: Kenny Ray Hoffman 2014: Carlos Sesma, Sr. 2016: Rick Kissinger 2017: Pat McMonigle 2018: Roger Watts 2019: Kathleen Jeffries 2021: Gordon McAuley * Scopelitis, Garvin, Light, Hanson & Feary, LLP (Pasadena, CA) The Bull Shipper’s Award represents the brightest and best

of TLA, those of us whose names adorn the trophy would like to believe. The highest honor our organization has to bestow? Some might question that description—though a shout-out is well-deserved by Steve Novy for adopting my reference to the award as such in his gracious comments delivered in acceptance of the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award at our recent conference. What it does undoubtedly represent are the sense of humor and friendship network that members of TLA enjoy, the real essence of our organization that has long existed and will endure for many years, reflected, no doubt, in many more names etched on the Bull Shipper’s Award trophy.

Endnotes

1 “TLA History - The Bull Shipper Award aka The Special Award, aka Big Trophy or Oscar - Who Won in 2009?” by Fritz R. Damm, The Transportation Lawyer, July 2009. 2 Anyone who has not timely paid his or her TLA dues knows what Fritz Damm’s “suggestions” can be like. I’m proud to say that I have not been on the receiving end of one of those “suggestions.” 3 “1937-2000, The Millennium History of The Transportation Lawyers Association” by Richard A. Champlin, containing a reproduction of a 1967 article by Louis Smith entitled, “A Brief(?), Inaccurate and Incomplete History of the MCLA.” The Millennium History is available on TLA’s website through a link at the bottom of the “Who

We Are” page. 4 “MCLA to TLA – A Transition Whose Time Had Come” by Michael J. Ogborn, The Transportation Lawyer, February 2016. 5 To save you the trouble, a “deipnosophist” is a person skilled in table talk. 6 The Millennium History tells us that a female nonmember, nonlawyer (Barbara Bruemmer, the wife of TLA’s President from 1968 to 1969, John Bruemmer) received the award for which she was “undoubtedly well qualified.”