Given that the National Western Stock Show is often billed as the “Super Bowl” of livestock shows, it’s fitting that the annual celebration of Western communities and lifestyles in north Denver makes for a lively time at the CSU Spur campus.

During this year’s event running Jan. 5-21, more than 12,000 people visited the three-building campus at the National Western Center. That includes close to 1,500 people who stopped by during Colorado State University Day at the Rodeo on Jan. 13 in spite of a stubborn arctic air mass that kept temperatures from climbing above zero.

CSU Spur’s first building, Vida, opened to visitors in January 2022, followed by the Terra building the next June and then Hydro in January 2023. That means this year’s Stock Show was only the second during which CSU Spur has been fully open to visitors.

This year marked the 118th Stock Show, and CSU has been closely tied to the annual event from the beginning. CSU System Chancellor Tony Frank recently answered questions from History Colorado about that relationship and how it has evolved with completion of the CSU Spur campus. A condensed and edited version of his response was published in December in The Colorado Magazine. Below are Chancellor Frank’s comments when he was asked, “What’s CSU’s relationship with the Stock Show?”

CSU has had an extremely long-term relationship with the National Western Stock Show. In fact, it goes back to when the Stock Show was born. Paul Andrews, the president and CEO of the Stock Show, likes to point out to me that, at the time of the first Stock Show in 1906, the CSU president actually gave students the day off and paid them so they could travel to Denver and attend. Obviously, that’s not part of our curriculum these days. Yet it’s still a strong partnership, even as it has evolved. Recently, a strong connection has been based on the National Western Scholarship Trust. Its reason for being is to educate people around animal agriculture, and they have no shortage of fundraising events that raise money for this fund. Far and away the leading destination of students receiving those awards, historically and to this day, is Colorado State University. On that plank, alone, we have huge common ground. The Stock Show is committed to supporting people interested in rural Colorado and the future of animal agriculture, and in helping them get the college education that will start them toward successful careers.

Since 2008, the partnership has really grown far beyond that. We were in discussions with the Stock Show about what its next iteration looked like. The plans took various forms, leading to the revitalized National Western Center that is taking shape now. As that vision evolved, our plans for the CSU Spur campus developed together with those of the Stock Show. I don’t think you can separate the two — they’re inextricably intertwined. The projects that we have at Spur relate to the production of food, the conservation of water, and the support of human and animal health. Food, water, and health are foundational elements of modern-day agriculture, and they’re critically important to the business of animal agriculture. So this is a partnership that, while it looks substantially different than it did a century ago, has evolved and is probably closer now than it has ever been.

I have the privilege of serving on the Stock Show board. The Stock Show and CSU both have appointments on the board that governs redevelopment at the National Western Center. The chairman of the board of the Western Stock Show Association is a former chair of the CSU Board of Governors, and there are many other connections. These are deep, long-time personal relationships. I think partnerships are most successful when people care about the organizations and their missions, and they also care about seeing them be successful together. That’s exactly what you’re seeing now in the redevelopment of the National Western Center.