The Battle is back in person. In early spring 2023, Davin Evans ’23 and Suzie Brewer ’25 traveled to San Antonio to compete in the 98th Annual Battle of Flowers Association Oratorical Competition. They were accompanied by Carrie Moore, who has been working with TCU students to compete in this annual competition since 2013. The competition requires contestants to write an abstract explaining their topics and deliver 10- to 12-minute speeches from memory.
One of the state’s oldest oratorical competitions, the Battle of Flowers Association Oratorical Competition sets a new topic each year based on Texas History. This year’s topic featured Heroines & Hell-raisers: Trailblazing Texas Women. The competition asked participants to talk about women who “broke through preconceived societal ideas of a woman’s role during their respective eras of our state’s past.” Evans spoke about ‘America’s Sweetheart of the Air’ Katherine Stinson and Brewer spoke about ‘The Wittiest Woman’ Mildred Didrickson Zaharias, also known as “Babe.”
Their speeches came together over the fall semester as they researched and practiced memorizing their speeches to prepare for the competition in early spring. Brewer talked about her process, “I started in the fall semester by researching and writing a paper on my topic, the life of Babe Didrikson,’ she explained. “Then, after editing and revising, I started working on the memorization process. To do this, I recorded voice memos of myself saying each section of my paper, and I would listen to them as I was walking in between my classes.”
Both students gave speeches to a small crowd on the morning of the competition. Brewer then advanced to the semifinal round in the afternoon and placed fifth in the overall competition. “My favorite part was probably actually performing my speech during the competition; it was nice to see all my hard work in memorizing pay off, and now I know a little bit more about a trailblazing Texas woman!” Brewer said of her experience.
Congratulations to our students who participated this year! Learn more about last year’s competition.