Quail enthusiasts packed the Southern Methodist University Indoor Performance Center in Dallas for the 14th Annual Dinner and Auction benefiting the Park Cities Quail Coalition on March 5. The night started off with a somber standing ovation for the legacy of T. Boone Pickens, conservationist and lover of quail, who passed away last September.
PCQC honored Carl Allen with the 2020 T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sports-man Award during the event. Allen is the youngest recipient of the award and is a successful entrepreneur, hunter, angler, conservationist and philanthropist. He is currently working on restoring Walker’s Cay in the Bahamas, a legendary fishing mecca.
Allen has supported the organization with more than $2 million in contributions since its inception. One of his no-table donations, a trip in the Bahamas on his fleet of ships sold twice for $375,000 each this year.
“There’s nothing like a wild quail flush; there’s just nothing like it,” Allen said.
Allen noted during his acceptance speech that his relationship with T. Boone Pickens inspired his involvement with quail. His wife, Gigi, bought a quail hunt on Pickens’ Mesa Vista Ranch in the Texas Panhandle, which gave Allen the opportunity to share memories and learn about quail from Pickens.
PCQC’s live auction brought in another record-shattering night for quail, raising approximately $2 million. Notably, a rare opportunity to purchase a 20-gauge Beretta shotgun from T. Boone Pickens’ private collection was auctioned for $100,000.