Will Rogers In 1947, a college football bowl game was named in his honor, but the event folded after the first year. The Academy of Western Artists, based in Gene Autry, Oklahoma, presents an annual Will Rogers Medallion award for excellence in western literature. The Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun is the name of an 80-foot observation tower on Cheyenne Mountain west of Colorado Springs, at the base of Pikes Peak near the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Rogers's California home, stables, and polo fields are preserved today for public enjoyment as Will Rogers State Historic Park in Pacific Palisades. His widow, Betty,
Will Rogers cameos in both the 1936 film "The Great Ziegfeld", and the 1937 film "You're a Sweetheart". Rogers was portrayed by his son, Will Rogers, Jr., in a cameo in the 1949 film "Look for the Silver Lining", and as the star of the 1952 film "The Story of Will Rogers". James Whitmore portrayed Rogers in eight runs of the one-man play "Will Rogers' USA" between 1970 and 2000, including a limited run on Broadway in 1974, and as a television film in 1972. Whitmore changed the monologue each time he performed it, using quotations from Rogers as commentary on events