About Ralph Winingham
Ralph Winingham is a Midwest native who came to Texas in 1971 as a 17-year-old high school graduate entering the U.S. Air Force. He served as one of the youngest military newspaper editors in the Air Force and was editor of the award-winning North Texas Daily before graduating in 1977 with a bachelor's of arts degree in journalism at North Texas State University.
During the past 40 years as a writer and photographer in South Texas, Winingham has won numerous awards from the Texas Outdoor Writers Association for his stories and photographs. A past president and former board chairman of TOWA, he was selected as the 2018 recipient of the L.A. Wilke Award, which is the highest honor that the organization can award to a Texas outdoor writer.
In addition, Winingham has been an avid outdoorsman - winning local, state and national titles as a competitive shooter with shotguns, rifles and pistols while fishing and hunting across Texas and in his native Midwest. He began his competitive shooting career as a member of the Tiro Al Pichon Association in the late 1970s, winning the 1984 TAPA Live Flyer World Championship held in San Antonio.
Certified as a National Sporting Clays Association Level II instructor, in addition to his current ranking as a Master Class shooter, and he has spent hundreds of hours of teaching youngsters, women and veteran shooters Winingham's Winning Ways of Busting Clays.
Winingham is also a world-class outdoor chef and award-winning author of both The Campfire Chef: Old Boots and Bacon Grease, and Revenge of Old Boots and Bacon Grease, which was the 2006 Texas Outdoor Writers Association Book of the Year. He has retired from outdoor writing to take a well-deserved break from deadline pressure. His writings and photos have been published in The Journal of Texas Trophy Hunters, where he was Shotgun and Wingshooting columnist; Texas Wildlife Association Magazine, where he was Guns and Shooting columnist; Texas Parks and Wildlife Outdoor Annual; Texas Sportsman Magazine; Texas Sporting Journal; Texas Outdoor Journal; Texas Deer Association Magazine; Texas Fish & Game Magazine; Texas Outback Magazine; GunTest Magazine, where he was the shotgun reviewer; Sporting Clays Magazine; Clay Shooting USA Magazine; Clay Nation Magazine; Readers Digest; Lone Star Outdoor News; Amarillo Globe Herald; San Antonio Express-News; and the Houston Chronicle.