Jim "Cowboy" Fernandez

December 12, 1931 – August 16, 2018                   Port Arthur, TX

James “Cowboy” Fernandez was a champion duck caller, inventor, businessman, conservation advocate, and founder of Sure-Shot Game Calls. Born in Port Arthur, Texas, he was the sixth of eight children and the first born in Texas, earning the nickname “Cowboy” that remained with him throughout his life.

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Fernandez developed a passion for hunting at a young age. After serving four and a half years in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he returned to Southeast Texas, married Iva Mae Coody, and attended Lamar University while working for Gulf States Utilities. During the early 1950s, he began working with legendary call maker George Yentzen, helping refine Yentzen’s patented double-reed duck call design.

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In 1959, Fernandez won the World Duck Calling Contest in Stuttgart, Arkansas, followed by the World Champion of Champions Duck Calling Contest in 1960. His success brought national attention to the Yentzen call and earned him an appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. Throughout his competitive career, he won the Gulf Coast Duck Calling Contest, three Gulf Coast Regional championships, six Texas Open Duck Calling championships, three International Duck Calling championships, and numerous other titles.

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After Yentzen’s death in 1958, Fernandez assumed leadership of the company and renamed it Sure-Shot Game Calls in 1959. Working from his garage in Groves, Texas, he continued improving duck call designs and later invented and patented the triple-reed duck call in 1968. Under his leadership, Sure-Shot expanded from duck calls into goose, turkey, deer, predator, squirrel, and other game calls, eventually producing dozens of products sold throughout the United States.

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For more than five decades, Fernandez traveled nationwide promoting hunting, teaching calling techniques, and demonstrating his products. His company grew into a successful family business that employed dozens of people and became one of the best-known names in waterfowl hunting.

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Beyond his business accomplishments, Fernandez was active in conservation and public service. He served as president of the Port Arthur Hunting Club and Shell Lake Hunting Club and founded the Sea Rim Hunting Club, an effort that helped support the preservation of coastal wetlands that later became part of Sea Rim State Park. He also served on the boards of the Beaumont and Port Arthur chapters of Ducks Unlimited and received the organization’s Green Wing Award for his conservation efforts. Additional public service included two terms on the Groves City Council, service on the Jefferson County Regional Planning and Zoning Board, leadership in Jefferson County’s first Neighborhood Watch program, and participation in emergency management planning.

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In 2012, Fernandez sold Sure-Shot Game Calls to longtime friend Charlie Holder after more than fifty years at the helm. Two years later, he was inducted into the Legends of the Outdoors Hall of Fame. Throughout his life, he encouraged young people to become involved in hunting and the outdoors, often ending his presentations with the advice: “Take a young person hunting today, and you won’t have to hunt the streets for them tomorrow.”