PAWNEE — Twenty years can seem like forever — and still feel like an eye blink when you step back into a stock show barn.
That’s what Pawnee County families saw this year when Jacob Thompson returned to the Pawnee County Junior Livestock Show to present a traveling award created in memory of his son, Collin Thompson — a Cleveland High School graduate, FFA member and livestock showman whose life ended far too soon, 20 years ago.
Collin was the kind of kid people in Cleveland still talk about — well-liked, busy, involved — the sort of student who didn’t just “join” FFA, but lived it. He graduated from Cleveland High School in 2004, was active in FFA and 4-H, and especially loved raising and showing pigs and cattle.
He didn’t just show animals — he helped build the places where the next generation would show theirs. Collin was active in welding and constructing animal pens at a new barn south of Cleveland, and he earned major honors as a showman, including recognition at events in Tulsa and Oklahoma City.
In October 2005, Collin achieved one of the highest milestones in the organization — The American FFA Degree in Louisville, Kentucky.
Less than a year later, Collin died at age 21 from injuries sustained in a motorcycle-automobile collision, passing away Aug. 28, 2006 at OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
His father, Jacob, chose to honor that life — not with anything that gathers dust, but with something that keeps moving, keeps inspiring.
The Collin Thompson traveling award goes every year to the winner of the hog showmanship competition at the Pawnee County Junior Livestock Show — an award that, by design, doesn’t stay put. It’s meant to be earned, held with pride, and then handed off again, year after year, to the next top young showman in the ring.
This year’s winner was Avery Draper, showing her Duroc Hog.
The 2026 Collin Thompson award carried the weight of two decades. It marked 20 years since Collin’s death, and Jacob Thompson made the trip to present the award in person — something he hadn’t done in several years.
Also in the barn was Ryan Brady, Collin’s best friend growing up.
This year’s presentation became an emotional reunion of two men who loved Collin and a small community’s memory. A father who still carries his son’s name. A friend who still remembers the kid behind the belt buckle and the welding mask. And now, a new generation of exhibitors who weren’t even born when Collin was showing, now standing under the same lights, feeling the same nerves, chasing the same kind of pride.
In rural Oklahoma, grief doesn’t arrive with speeches. Sometimes it shows up in a handshake at the gate or a buckle being passed to a teenager whose hands are shaking — not from fear, but from realizing this moment is about more than just showmanship.
Collin’s story is still rooted in Cleveland, but the tribute his father created has taken on a life of its own — traveling from one deserving exhibitor to the next, year after year, reminding Pawnee County kids that showmanship isn’t just about control in the ring, it’s about character.
For one night this year, in a busy barn full of dust, hogs and families, the agriculture community paused long enough to remember a young man who loved this life — and to see, in the next winner’s posture and calm hands, a piece of what Collin Thompson left behind.