Sam Lewis, who made himself a Texas legend by staging armadillo races around the world, not to mention inventing the jalapeno lollipop, died of cancer Jan. 10 at his home in San Angelo, Texas. He was 80.
Mr. Lewis was representative of an exuberant breed of Texan who likes to push the boundaries of convention, whether at fight-to-the-finish chili cook-offs, ersatz cowboy re-enactments or society balls attended by people in formal dress and longhorn cattle.
He was a Stetson-wearing promoter who boasted that he never did an honest day’s work in his life.
Mr. Lewis’ inspiration was to capitalize on the armadillo, an armored prehistoric-looking animal whose corpses have littered Texas roadways.
Not only did he race them, he sent them to zoos around the world and rented them: to movie producers (one had a role in “Tin Cup”); to the Rolling Stones, who used armadillos for an opening act; and to medical researchers, who used them to study leprosy.
“We will send an armadillo to anyone who has a legitimate need for one, a legitimate need,” he said. “We won’t send them to nuts.”
As owner and chief executive of the World Armadillo Breeding and Racing Association and president of the International Armadillo Appreciation Society, he maintained an armadillo ranch and an armadillo rental agency. He caught armadillos by hand and sent them to zoos around the world. He advised James Michener on armadillos for Michener’s two-volume work “Texas.”
As the armadillo became central to the Texas chic that blossomed in the 1970s, Mr. Lewis led the charge. He created San Angelo Sam, an armadillo that was the West Texas answer to Pennsylvania’s groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. In 1995, Texas finally heeded his lobbying and made the armadillo its official state small mammal.
Mr. Lewis also had sold rights to his idea for jalapeno products, including olives stuffed with the peppers. He remained as a pitchman, never traveling without an armadillo and always driving because, as he said, armadillos did not like to fly.
A native of Mississippi, he ran away from home at 14 and ended up in San Angelo. He saw his first armadillo at 15 while raccoon hunting and was completely charmed.
In World War II, he was a tail gunner on a B-29 and later managed a pizza parlor.
In 1951, he came up with the idea of racing an armadillo against a horned toad. A bet had something to do with it, though nobody recollects which animal won. When Mr. Lewis later entered a high-stakes duck race, his armadillo was definitely not up to the challenge.
