I can’t tell you how many rodeos are happening today, but as a historian it is far more than were happening 100 years ago. There was nothing called ‘Cowboy Christmas’ on the 4th of July a century ago. Today those dedicated cowboys that are trying to reach that ‘top fifteen’ in the world, in their event, can get to three rodeos in one day if the logistics allow it. And ‘Cowboy Christmas’ isn’t just the 4th of July but starts at least a week or more before it, and continues through the next week or more! In fact, the entire rodeo season is jammed crammed with rodeos. There is no time for jackpots or matched competitions today, those dedicated cowboys and cowgirls don’t have the time. And once the season is over, the next day the new season begins!
It was the hope of those running the new sport 100 years ago that their results would be found on the Sports Pages of major newspapers. But it didn’t happen. Why? Rodeo came on the heels of the Wild West Shows which were promoted as a theatrical event. When rodeo started being held they fell in to using similar words such as ‘Wild’ ‘Show’ in fact the book written by Shirley Flynn about Cheyenne Frontier Days and produced in 1986 has the title “Let’s Go! Let’s Show! Let’s Rodeo! But it is my belief that not only was the early words used to promote rodeo, it was also that most sports writers knew very little or nothing about rodeo. I have stood and listened to sport writers from newspapers interview cowboys and they run out of questions quickly because they don’t know Rodeo. Rodeo today consists of eight different events. Knowing the rules of barrel racing, isn’t going to give a reporter the knowledge to interview a bronc rider, or a tie down competitor.
Rodeo has finally arrived! As a historian I have talked to cowboys that competed long ago. They said if they heard about a rodeo within horseback riding distance they’d take off for it and when they got there it may not even be happening. How discouraging! But not to a cowboy who really was committed to rodeo competition. He’d do it again and again, hoping there was a chance to compete in his event. Sometimes those rodeos back in 1925 didn’t have all the events we have in rodeo today. It might be bronc riding and steer wrestling only. Or calf roping, steer roping and horse racing. The bull riding that we have it today wasn’t even in it’s infancy – if it was held at all it was ‘steer riding’ and once the rider fell off or finished the ride the steer just ran off. Brahma’s with their bad attitudes wasn’t even introduced to rodeo until the early 1920s.
Today’s competitors are juggling problems very different than their early rodeo predecessors. Back then it was finding a rodeo – anywhere within a distance they could get to and hoping they had their events. Now it is which rodeo should they go to, what does it pay, who has the stock, what is the entry fee, and more?
In the early days, if a cowboy got hurt, he got along the best he could. If he was bleeding, he’d get it stopped, if possible. If he was hurting because he was badly bruised or worse , he acted as if he could ‘handle it’. If it was an injury that put him out of commission – he just had to ‘grin and bear it’. It’ll heal – eventually -- maybe. Today Justin Healers are at most all rodeos and the minute they see an accident happen they are there to do what can be done to keep that cowboy able to compete.
When Dr. J. Pat Evans was asked to help rodeo cowboys, because he was the doctor for the Dallas Cowboy football team and kept them on the football field even with some injuries someone got him to attend. He was very willing to go to the rodeo and be prepared to help cowboys in need. What happened? Dr. J. Pat was at the rodeo in Fort Worth. He had a room and all his ‘medical wares’ to help keep cowboys healthy. NO ONE SHOWED UP!! The cowboys said – ‘It Wasn’t the Cowboy Way! ‘But cleverly, someone suggested Donnie Gay, who was leading the bull riding and became a World Champion eight years, and was every cowboy’s hero should go see Dr. Evans. Donnie understood the need the cowboys had and went to Dr. J. Pat – when the other cowboys saw him getting help one by one they started to go see the doctor. Today no one thinks anything but great to be helped with an injury by medically trained people at the rodeo. But it took a while. ‘The Cowboy Way has gotten Smarter’ and is staying in the game longer.
I just finished a Rodeo Clown Reunion at a rodeo 1,400+ miles from my home, with 30 honorees, their wives, daughters, sons, or girlfriends who came with them. The Reunion is an opportunity for the retired rodeo clown to put back on their face makeup and baggy britches, or cut off britches with the bandanas hanging from them, and visit with the spectators and fans at a rodeo. They also were part of the Mandan Rodeo Days parade, did their old acts for the audience, and were introduced in the arena during the rodeo while the announcer told where they were from. This small addition to an annual rodeo is a shot in the arm for the community where it is held, as well as the honorees who may never have visited Mandan or the area before. They love helping with the mutton busting, the exceptional rodeo held for kids and adults with medical needs, signing autographs and so much more. As one wife told me, “The Reunion has given my husband a part of his life back he’d thought was gone forever.”
I plan to be at the Gold Card Room during the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December. The Gold Card Room is on the ground level of Thomas & Mack, and is for seniors that have their Gold Cards with PRCA. To get a Gold Card requires 20 years of rodeo competition plus be over 40 years old. When I was just a starting to research rodeo history a mentor brought me to the Gold Card Room and I met and interviewed a number of old-timers, including many world champions, who told me so much about their early life in rodeo. Now I’m there as a hostess, giving back, for all the information I received early in my career of writing books and articles on rodeo. The cowboys and cowgirls that enter our doors are the greatest cowboys and cowgirls in the world and we have so much fun. The Gold Card Room is just two hours long, prior to the rodeo but we do a lot in that short time. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!
I still am having so much fun gathering and researching and adding interesting things about rodeo as it was 100 years ago and what it has come to be. In fact, the publisher has my most recent book on rodeo in the works, and hopefully it will be out soon. It is the early days of rodeo held in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The first rodeo was in 1922 and continued to be held yearly until the National Finals Rodeo started in 1959. The things that happened and how they were handled and those that were competing and performing in those days are all in the book. I think you’ll like it.
I wish there were ten of me, because there is so much history of rodeo I’ll never have enough time to write about all of it. I was called “a walking encyclopedia of rodeo history” the other day. I’m not a rodeo encyclopedia, there’s so much more I don’t know. But I’m still trying to do my best and capture as many of those long lost interesting important stories in rodeo as I can. Until next time . . .
It was the hope of those running the new sport 100 years ago that their results would be found on the Sports Pages of major newspapers. But it didn’t happen. Why? Rodeo came on the heels of the Wild West Shows which were promoted as a theatrical event. When rodeo started being held they fell in to using similar words such as ‘Wild’ ‘Show’ in fact the book written by Shirley Flynn about Cheyenne Frontier Days and produced in 1986 has the title “Let’s Go! Let’s Show! Let’s Rodeo! But it is my belief that not only was the early words used to promote rodeo, it was also that most sports writers knew very little or nothing about rodeo. I have stood and listened to sport writers from newspapers interview cowboys and they run out of questions quickly because they don’t know Rodeo. Rodeo today consists of eight different events. Knowing the rules of barrel racing, isn’t going to give a reporter the knowledge to interview a bronc rider, or a tie down competitor.
Rodeo has finally arrived! As a historian I have talked to cowboys that competed long ago. They said if they heard about a rodeo within horseback riding distance they’d take off for it and when they got there it may not even be happening. How discouraging! But not to a cowboy who really was committed to rodeo competition. He’d do it again and again, hoping there was a chance to compete in his event. Sometimes those rodeos back in 1925 didn’t have all the events we have in rodeo today. It might be bronc riding and steer wrestling only. Or calf roping, steer roping and horse racing. The bull riding that we have it today wasn’t even in it’s infancy – if it was held at all it was ‘steer riding’ and once the rider fell off or finished the ride the steer just ran off. Brahma’s with their bad attitudes wasn’t even introduced to rodeo until the early 1920s.
Today’s competitors are juggling problems very different than their early rodeo predecessors. Back then it was finding a rodeo – anywhere within a distance they could get to and hoping they had their events. Now it is which rodeo should they go to, what does it pay, who has the stock, what is the entry fee, and more?
In the early days, if a cowboy got hurt, he got along the best he could. If he was bleeding, he’d get it stopped, if possible. If he was hurting because he was badly bruised or worse , he acted as if he could ‘handle it’. If it was an injury that put him out of commission – he just had to ‘grin and bear it’. It’ll heal – eventually -- maybe. Today Justin Healers are at most all rodeos and the minute they see an accident happen they are there to do what can be done to keep that cowboy able to compete.
When Dr. J. Pat Evans was asked to help rodeo cowboys, because he was the doctor for the Dallas Cowboy football team and kept them on the football field even with some injuries someone got him to attend. He was very willing to go to the rodeo and be prepared to help cowboys in need. What happened? Dr. J. Pat was at the rodeo in Fort Worth. He had a room and all his ‘medical wares’ to help keep cowboys healthy. NO ONE SHOWED UP!! The cowboys said – ‘It Wasn’t the Cowboy Way! ‘But cleverly, someone suggested Donnie Gay, who was leading the bull riding and became a World Champion eight years, and was every cowboy’s hero should go see Dr. Evans. Donnie understood the need the cowboys had and went to Dr. J. Pat – when the other cowboys saw him getting help one by one they started to go see the doctor. Today no one thinks anything but great to be helped with an injury by medically trained people at the rodeo. But it took a while. ‘The Cowboy Way has gotten Smarter’ and is staying in the game longer.
I just finished a Rodeo Clown Reunion at a rodeo 1,400+ miles from my home, with 30 honorees, their wives, daughters, sons, or girlfriends who came with them. The Reunion is an opportunity for the retired rodeo clown to put back on their face makeup and baggy britches, or cut off britches with the bandanas hanging from them, and visit with the spectators and fans at a rodeo. They also were part of the Mandan Rodeo Days parade, did their old acts for the audience, and were introduced in the arena during the rodeo while the announcer told where they were from. This small addition to an annual rodeo is a shot in the arm for the community where it is held, as well as the honorees who may never have visited Mandan or the area before. They love helping with the mutton busting, the exceptional rodeo held for kids and adults with medical needs, signing autographs and so much more. As one wife told me, “The Reunion has given my husband a part of his life back he’d thought was gone forever.”
I plan to be at the Gold Card Room during the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in December. The Gold Card Room is on the ground level of Thomas & Mack, and is for seniors that have their Gold Cards with PRCA. To get a Gold Card requires 20 years of rodeo competition plus be over 40 years old. When I was just a starting to research rodeo history a mentor brought me to the Gold Card Room and I met and interviewed a number of old-timers, including many world champions, who told me so much about their early life in rodeo. Now I’m there as a hostess, giving back, for all the information I received early in my career of writing books and articles on rodeo. The cowboys and cowgirls that enter our doors are the greatest cowboys and cowgirls in the world and we have so much fun. The Gold Card Room is just two hours long, prior to the rodeo but we do a lot in that short time. I wouldn’t miss it for the world!
I still am having so much fun gathering and researching and adding interesting things about rodeo as it was 100 years ago and what it has come to be. In fact, the publisher has my most recent book on rodeo in the works, and hopefully it will be out soon. It is the early days of rodeo held in Madison Square Garden in New York City. The first rodeo was in 1922 and continued to be held yearly until the National Finals Rodeo started in 1959. The things that happened and how they were handled and those that were competing and performing in those days are all in the book. I think you’ll like it.
I wish there were ten of me, because there is so much history of rodeo I’ll never have enough time to write about all of it. I was called “a walking encyclopedia of rodeo history” the other day. I’m not a rodeo encyclopedia, there’s so much more I don’t know. But I’m still trying to do my best and capture as many of those long lost interesting important stories in rodeo as I can. Until next time . . .
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