In 1964 there were the smiling mugs of singer Eddy Arnold and actor Michael Landon.

In 1971 came the floating heads of Johnny Cash, B.J. Thomas and Glen Campbell.

And in 1996 there was the nod to the Astrodome: "Still proud to call it home."

No matter the year, the souvenir program has been the go-to guide for all things rodeo. But in addition to being a memento of times spent with family and friends, it is an artifact of Houston's past that serves as a chapter in the story of the rodeo.

Leroy Shafer, the rodeo's former vice president and chief operating officer who was instrumental in reshaping the program in the 1970s, sees that and much more in its pages.

"The history of printing in the 20th century very much was mirrored by what the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo was doing," he said, noting the different printing techniques that went into publishing it over the decades.

Until the mid-1970s, many of those rodeo covers featured the entertainer for that year. But in 1975, the late Western artist Mark Storm, who did artwork for the rodeo posters and long had a hand in creating the program covers, was commissioned to do a cover honoring a saddle bronc champion.

"That was the start of using Mark's painting capability to paint something that was unique that became the cover," Shafer said.

Storm's cover art would celebrate rodeo culture and its history for the next 24 years.

Souvenir programs of note To Leroy Shafer, some of these programs carry historical significance. Here's a look at a few: 1938: With the rodeo now in the newly built Sam Houston Coliseum, this year marks the first time the rodeo published a souvenir program. 1975: The first to feature cover art by Mark Storm. Though he was no stranger to putting together the rodeo posters and earlier program covers, his artwork would come to be the focus of the cover art for the next 24 years. 1980: Pays tribute to chuckwagon driver Slim Helme. 1982: For the 50th anniversary program, Storm included all the past Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo presidents on horseback on its cover. "I think he worked on that painting for six months," Shafer said.

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Longtime rodeo goers might notice how the programs nearly reached phone-book proportions beginning in the mid-1970s. By the '80s, the programs were hitting 1,000 pages.

One reason, Shafer said, came after the volunteer committees began working more closely with rodeo staff to sell space in the program. Before it was all brought in-house an outside ad agency coordinated production.

On the editorial side, the programs featured biographies of scholarship winners and the names of those associated with the committees. As the early 1980s rolled around, there were more scholarships and committees, which also led to a bigger program.

"All these things just mushroomed and that's where you see the growth of the program," Shafer said.

Today, the rodeo's app and website contains a lot of the information once found in earlier programs. But doesn't mean the program is a relic not worth your $2.

"How important is that souvenir program still at this point?" Shafer wondered. "I think the very key thing is, it is a souvenir. It is a piece that you take home."