Rodeo History

Rodeo is a traditional sport from Mexico that has been adopted in North America. The word is from Spanish and literally means "I surround."

Early History of Rodeo
Rodeo continues to stress its western folk hero image and its being a genuinely American creation. But in fact it grew out of the far older Mexican “Charreada,” a mixture of cattle wrangling and bull fighting that dates back to the sixteenth-century conquistadors, among whom one manner of fighting bulls was to attempt to ride them to death. This is the origin of rodeo bull riding, something which has baffled historians since they began writing about the sport. Barrel racing, the major modern women’s rodeo event, is the only standard rodeo contest that cannot be traced back to the Mexican “Charreada”.

As barrel racing and bull riding clearly show, rodeo did not, as so many historians have insisted, grow out of the daily work of Anglo ranch hands. Another contest that has nothing to do with ranch work is steer wrestling or bulldogging. However, “charros” did have a steer wrestling event. Their very popular contest involved wrestling the steer to the ground by riding up behind it, grabbing its tail, and twisting it to the ground. The event spread throughout the Kingdom of New Spain and was found at fairgrounds, racetracks, fiestas, and festivals in nineteenth century southwestern areas that now comprise the United States. However, unlike the roping, riding, and racing, this charro contest never attracted a following among Anglo cowboys or audiences.

There would probably be no steer wrestling at all in American rodeo were it not for a black cowboy from Texas named Bill Pickett who devised his own unique method of bulldogging steers. He jumped from his horse to a steer’s back, bit its lip, and threw it to the ground by twisting its horns. He performed at local central Texas fairs and rodeos and was discovered by an agent, who signed him on a tour of the West with his brothers. He received sensational national publicity with his bulldogging exhibition at the 1904 Cheyenne Frontier Days. This brought him a contract with the famous 101 Ranch Wild West, where he spent many years performing in the United States and abroad.

Pickett attracted many imitators who appeared a rodeos and Wild West shows, and soon there were enough practitioners for promoters to stage contests.The first woman bulldogger appeared in 1913, when the great champion trick and bronc rider and racer Tillie Baldwin exhibited the feat. However, women's bulldogging contests never materialized. But cowboys did take up the sport with enthusiasm but without the lip-biting, and when rodeo rules were codified, steer wrestling was among the standard contests. As for Bill Pickett, two Halls of Fame recognize him as the sole inventor of bulldogging, the only rodeo event which can be attributed to a single individual.

Rodeo itself evolved after the Texas Revolution and the US-Mexican War when Anglo cowboys learned the skills, attire, vocabulary, and sports of the “vaqueros.” Ranch-versus-ranch contests gradually sprang up, as bronc riding, bull riding, and roping contests appeared at race tracks, fairgrounds, and festivals of all kinds. William F. Cody (Buffalo Bill) created the first major rodeo and the first Wild West show in North Platte, Nebraska in 1882. Following this successful endeavor, Cody organized his touring Wild West show, leaving other entrepreneurs to create what became professional rodeo.

Rodeos and Wild West shows enjoyed a parallel existence, employing many of the same stars, while capitalizing the continuing allure of the mythic West. Women joined the Wild West and contest rodeo circuits in the 1890s and their participation grew as the activities spread geographically. Rodeo enjoyed enormous popularity in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, as well as in London, Europe, Cuba, South America, and the Far East in the 1920s and 1930s.[8] Today, none of those venues is viable. Despite numerous tours abroad before World War II, rodeo is really significant only in North America. While it does exist in Australia and New Zealand, top athletes from those countries come to America to seek their fortunes. Some Latin American countries have contests called rodeos but these have none of the events found in the North American version.

Rodeo After World War I
World War I nearly killed rodeo, but three men and two organizations brought it back to greater prominence, not in the West where it was born, but in the big cities of the East. Tex Austin created the Madison Square Garden Rodeo in 1922. It immediately became the premier event. Overshadowing Cheyenne Frontier Days, its winners were thereafter recognized as the unofficial worlds champions. In 1924, Austin produced the London Rodeo at Wembley Stadium, universally acknowledged as the most successful international contest in rodeo history. However, despite his triumphs, Austin lost control of the Madison Square Garden contest, and his influence dwindled. A Texan, Col. William T. Johnson, took over the Garden rodeo. He soon began producing rodeos in other eastern indoor arenas, which forever changed the nature of the sport. There was no room indoors for races, and time constraints limited the number of events that could be included. Rodeos no longer lasted all day as they did under the western sky.

In 1929 two events occurred which split rodeo down the geographic middle: champion cowgirl Bonnie McCarroll died in a bronc riding accident at Pendleton, Oregon. Her death caused many western rodeos to drop women’s contests That same year, western rodeo producers formed the Rodeo Association of America (RAA) in an attempt to bring order to the chaotic sport, and refused to sanction any women’s contests. Eastern producers aligned themselves with Col. Johnson who ignored the RAA, and continued include lucrative cowgirl contests at their rodeos.

However, the cowboys hated Col Johnson, whom they felt distributed prize money unfairly, and mostly to himself. In 1936, they went on strike at his Boston Garden rodeo, demanding a bigger share of the gate as prize money. Garden management finally forced Johnson to relent, and the jubilant cowboys formed the Cowboys Turtle Association (CTA), which is now the powerful PRCA. A defeated Johnson sold his company and retired, never again to be seen or heard from in the rodeo business. Like the RAA, the CTA allowed women no part in running their organization or participating in their contests. While these actions were unfolding on the big-time circuit, a little-known rodeo Stamford, Texas, set off a series of events that would change history.

In 1931, promoters of the Stamford Cowboy Reunion invited all local ranches to send a young woman at least sixteen years old to compete in a contest designed to add femininity to the all-male rodeo. Since the ranches sponsored the women it was called a Sponsor Contest, and the name stuck! The women were judged on who had the best horse, the most attractive outfit, and on horsemanship as they rode a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels! Obviously, judging was strictly objective. Nonetheless, the contest was a huge success, and was widely copied.

In 1939, Johnson’s replacement at Madison Square Garden, Everett Colburn, invited a group of Texas Sponsor Girls to appear at his rodeo as a publicity stunt. Although vilified by the press, the women did generate enough publicity to cause a second group of lovelies to be invited the next year. The 1940 rodeo featured Hollywood singing Cowboy Gene Autry, and the women rode while he sang, “Home on the Range.” It was a tradition that continued for decades. Soon thereafter, Autry formed a rodeo company and took over not only Madison Square Garden, but also Boston Garden and most of the other major rodeos from coast-to-coast. One of his first actions was to discontinue the cowgirl bronc riding contest, which had been a highlight of the Madison Square Garden Rodeo since its inception in 1922. There was nothing left for cowgirls but the invitation-only sponsor girl event.

While a few really gifted athletes, who are now honored by the Cowgirl Hall of Fame, did participate, most of the women were attractive daughters of wealthy and influential ranchers. According to one Hall of Fame honoree who was a Madison Square Garden Sponsor Girl, several of the women could barely ride. Exactly how they were chosen remains a mystery to this day. What is certain is that thanks to Gene Autry, real cowgirl contests disappeared from rodeos nation wide. Also certain is that sponsor contests are the genesis of barrel racing, which is today the premier women’s rodeo event. However, Autry’s influence was hardly limited to women.

His popularity was such that producers nationwide found they could no longer attract a crowd without a western singer to headline their rodeos. Still today, rodeo is the only professional sport in which the athletes are not the featured performers! Autry is also credited with keeping the sport alive during World War II, thanks to his business acumen, and the heavily patriotic themes that permeated his productions.

Rodeo after World War II
Following the War, a merged CTA and RAA became the PRCA, and took complete control of the sport. Men like Austin, Johnson, and Autry could no longer wield the power they previously maintained. Consequently, the Madison Square Garden rodeo lost its luster, and the PRCA established the NFR, to determine for the next half century who were the true worlds champion cowboys. However, the PRCA benefited primarily white males, as the diverse groups who had once competed in rodeo were largely absent from the arena.

Native, Americans now have their own rodeo organization, and have shown little interest in PRCA activities. Records give no indication of institutional racism on the part of the PRCA, although anecdotal evidence suggests that individual rodeo committees sometimes did discriminate against and African Americans and Hispanics in the fifties and sixties. Moreover, black and Hispanic cowboys have won the PRCA worlds championships, with Leo Camarillo taking the team roping title five times, and earning fifteen consecutive trips to the NFR.

Women realized it would be up to them to get back into the mainstream of the sport. Two Texas cowgirls, Nancy Binford and Thena Mae Farr, in 1947 staged an All-Girl Rodeo at the Tri-State Fair in Amarillo, Texas. Their event was a record-breaking and media success. The following year, many of the participants met to form what is now the WPRA. The organization aimed to provide women the opportunity to compete in legitimate, sanctioned contests at PRCA rodeos and in rough stock and roping events at all-girl rodeos.

All-girl rodeos had their heyday in the fifties, when Binford and Farr formed a company and produced successful contests from Colorado to Mississippi. However, prize money from all-girl rodeos never provided participants with enough money to meet expenses. Another drawback was that contestants who restricted their participation to all-girl rodeos had no opportunity to meet the cowboys that cowgirls traditionally married. Though the contests continued to flourish under the leadership of Binford and Farr, when those women retired, all-girl rodeos diminished becoming a minor part of the WPRA.

On the other hand, the WPRA was highly successful in restoring cowgirl contests to PRCA rodeos. Barrel racing was the most popular WPRA contest and it spread rapidly throughout the country. In 1955, PRCA president Bill Linderman and WPRA president Jackie Worthington signed an historic agreement that remained in effect for half a century. It urged the inclusion of WPRA barrel racing at PRCA rodeos, and required that women’s events at PRCA rodeos conform to WPRA rules and regulations. When the NFR began four years later, the WPRA began campaigning to have their barrel racing championship included. With the help of the Oklahoma City NFR sponsors, who believed the popular event would increase attendance, they finally succeeded in 1967.

Although the barrel race was in the NFR, cowgirls’ prize money was far below that of cowboys. Following the passage of Title IX and the subsequent gender equity movement, the WPRA in 1980 sent an ultimatum to 650 rodeo committees nationwide that if prizes were not equal by 1985, the WPRA would not participate. There was almost universal compliance, and women’s winnings more than doubled by 1990. But the NFR refused to comply. They insisted the women were guests of the PRCA. Not wishing to be shut out of this important event, the WPRA obtained corporate sponsors to increase the NFR purse into compliance. Still, the prize inequity angered the women, who continued to press for better treatment. The same was true of team ropers, whose already measly purse had to be split between the two team members. At the 1997 NFR, cowboys and cowgirls led by team roper Matt Tyler threatened to strike unless they received equal prize money. This cooperative effort resulted in successful negotiations. Since 1998, the NFR has paid equal money to all participants. The additional funding comes from the sale of special luxury seats.

Rodeo. (2007, February 21). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:41, February 25, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rodeo&oldid=109909009

Copyright (c) Wikipedia.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.