The Chamber’s Star Award is our highest community service honor, bestowed upon individuals that have made significant and lasting impact in the community.

This year’s recipient, Cliff Mycoskie, helped shape the landscape of Arlington for over 40 years. Raised in Arlington and a proud Arlington High School Colt, he worked on projects such as The Levitt Pavilion, Globe Life Field, the Arlington Highlands and Six Flags Over Texas. He served on a variety of boards and commissions including the Arlington Parks Board, the P&Z Commission, the River Legacy Foundation, The Levitt Pavilion and the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce Board.

During the 79th Annual Dinner, Mycoskie sat down with Michael Jacobson, CEO & President of the Chamber. Watch the interview here or read the transcript below.

Jacobson: Before we talk about you, the Mycoskie family is a name that people know. Talk about being a Mycoskie  and how that shaped your engagement in Arlington. 

Mycoskie: Well, my parents came to Arlington in 1950, and it was about 7000 people. They were very involved in a lot of things, like the building, getting Arlington Memorial Hospital was a big deal. I was born in Fort Worth because we didn’t have a hospital in Arlington, and my dad was very involved. He was the first Chief of Staff at Arlington Memorial, and seeing him, my two brothers became orthopedic surgeons. My sister was their nurse. So I came from a very medical family. At family gatherings, they were always talking about, you know, who they helped and how it’s going. And I kind of felt like a, you know, a small person compared to what they were doing. But I think the best thing that I learned from my dad was the way he treated baseball players as the doctor for the Rangers. He treated them all the same, and he treated them with dignity, and he had an unbelievable repertoire with them. I learned a lot about humility watching the way he treated players.

Jacobson: You told me this great story and it talks about how much Arlington has grown over the last 60 years or so. You talked about going on your Dad’s last house call. Tell people about that last house call. 

Mycoskie: So we did a lot of house calls. I liked going with him on house calls, and with him when he made rounds at the hospital. I woke up; it must have been a weekend because I was home; it was in the winter. He said, let’s go. We’re going to go do a house call. He had a T-bird. We drove out on Matlock Road to where it dead ended – that was Arkansas lane – and pouring down rain, and we just sat there, and he said, Just wait a second. Sure enough, here comes a horseman with Dragon reigning two other horses. And we got out of the T-bird, and he gave us yellow rain slickers; and we were off to Webb to see Mrs. English, who was ill, and he took care of her. We rode all the way back in the rain. We got in that car, he started it up, and he looked over at me, and he said, That’s my last house call. It took us a day to get down there and back on horseback. 

Jacobson: What year was that about?

Mycoskie: That was probably about 1960.

Jacobson: 1960. So nothing south of Arkansas?

Mycoskie: No Pioneer. No I-20. It stopped. Arkansas ws kind of where civilization stopped.

Jacobson: Also in your younger days, back in 1971, you took over the city for a day. Talk about that.

Mycoskie: Well, I was involved in a service organization at Arlington High School, and our sponsor said they want you to be the mayor for the day. And of course, I knew Tom Vandergriff already, but I went down there, got dressed up, and spent the day with him, and actually even did a radio interview. It was really cool, but he was awesome. And of course, I knew a lot of people in the city, but he kept coming back. And I remember this vividly, talking about the Arlington High, the Colt, football game against the Grand Prairie Gophers in Gopher stadium. It was pouring down rain again, and we won 10 to seven, and I kicked a field goal to win the game. And he just, he just, he sent me a telegram after the game. He just said, you gave us. You know, he was great, but he just kept coming back to that game. Tell me a little bit more about that game. And so he was a great fan. I had a really wonderful time spending that day with him. 

Jacobson: Alright, how far was the field goal that you kicked?

Mycoskie: It was 40 yards.

Jacobson:  It seems to me if you look back over the last 40 years, when Arlington needed somebody from the business community to step up, they called on Cliff Mycoskie. Is that a fair statement?

Mycoskie: Yeah. I guess it was a blessing, but maybe even a curse, because I was friends with most of the mayors. They all…There must have been some sort of a passing of the baton about who to call when you needed to raise money. So, I sat on the Parks Board and P&Z and and chaired bond elections, and raised money for those bond elections. And then my favorite one was the Levitt, and that was a great, great experience raising money for that. 

Jacobson: Let’s talk about The Levitt Pavilion a little bit because that was one of the big projects you worked on. I know there had to be some land exchanges and all that, but I know you’re really proud of what you were able to do there.

Mycoskie: Well, it was a great thing. And you know, the land that the Levitt sits on the City did not own; it was the First Baptist Church land on the corner, and the City owned the land where the old City Hall was, where the Dream sculpture is. So Maggie came and saw me and wanted us, asked me and MMA to survey the properties. I turned it over to Jacob Sumter, and we surveyed it, and we prepared the plat. We went and saw Terry Bertrand of the church, told him about the Levitt, what it was going to be a music venue downtown, and it didn’t take him five seconds to say yes on the land swap. They were just wonderful. They were in on it, and they liked it.

Jacobson: I know the guests that were here earlier today on the show, River Legacy, were really important to you as well. Talk about your involvement with River Legacy.

Mycoskie: River Legacy was a big deal. That was a really, really big deal. And of course, it was run by Sylvia Green, and she was a force. We had an all star board on that, just some really great heavy hitters on the board. We had to raise a lot of private money to get the park built, and then also private money to do the Nature Center, which is a world class facility, and I’m really proud of that project. There’s no park like that in this area. That trail system is incredible, the Nature Center, the children’s education program. But what I did when I went off the board was I created the golf tournament every year, and then the Clay Shoot, which turns out to be, you know, a lot of their two biggest fundraisers, really.

Jacobson: Did you ever win the Clay Shoot?

Mycoskie: No.

Jacobson: He’s a really good shot by the way. As a friend of yours, it’s awesome to see you receive the Star Award, and our community is collectively so grateful to you for all that you’ve done.

The Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce is extremely fortunate to have a wealth of generous businesses and individuals worthy of recognition in our community. Annually, the Chamber awards select individuals and businesses for the contribution they have made toward delivering on various aspects of the Chamber mission: “Together, We Champion Economic and Community Prosperity.” As part of the Annual Dinner, the Chamber bestows two honors on individuals and businesses who are pioneers in their industries, leaders in the greater Arlington community and exceptional volunteers.