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[ “Never did I think I would be that caliber of cowboy to be inducted into the hall of fame.” ]

“I think I was just cut out to be a bareback rider. I love that event and the attitude it took to be a bareback rider. And a bunch of my lifetime heroes ended up being bareback riders. It was what turned me on,” says J.C. Trujillo. When the Arizona-born cowboy nodded his head and burst into the sport of rodeo as a child, it swiftly became a way of life, presenting him with opportunities, lifelong friendships, and numerous accomplishments, which he rode to the buzzer and continues to enjoy today. One of these accolades includes his induction in November to the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, an honor that J.C. says comes from the many people who stood behind him all his life.
Born May 10, 1948, in Prescott, Arizona, J.C. started rodeoing at age 6. He and his older brother and sister, Frank and Irene, were launched into the sport by their parents, Albert and Stella Trujillo. “My mom and dad were so instrumental through my whole rodeo career that I just wish they were here to see this also,” says J.C. of his recent induction. “They drug us around to rodeos, paid entry fees, bought horses and horse trailers. They were by no means wealthy people, but we pinched our pennies and got to all our rodeos. Every honor I receive is because of my mom and dad.”
J.C. and his siblings and cousin, Joe Vecere, who grew up with them, competed in all the events of the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association. J.C. moved into high school rodeo and won state his senior year in the bareback riding, traveling with his dad to the NHSFR held in Watonga, Oklahoma in 1966. On the way, they stopped at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and walked through the hall of fame. “Never did I think I would be that caliber of cowboy to be inducted into the hall of fame.”
J.C. took third in the nation at the NHSFR, and despite his rodeo successes, thought he wanted to be a football player. He joined the Eastern Arizona Junior College team in 1967. “Those were big guys. I was too little and too slow, and it was a good thing, because they were the ones who convinced me I wanted to be a bareback rider. I was only there for a semester and then I went to Mesa Community College and rodeoed on their team.” From there, J.C. competed on the Arizona State University rodeo team, winning the college finals in 1968. He had already obtained his PRCA card in 1967 and pro rodeoed while finishing his degree in elementary education, graduating from ASU in 1972. “But I went to rodeoing and never used it. But teaching runs in my blood, because I used what I gained there to do rodeo schools all over the country.” J.C. taught with his good friend and a fellow rodeo champion, saddle bronc rider Shawn Davis, along with champion bull rider John Davis, and later, Gary Leffew. “We did three or four a year while we were going down the road, sometimes more. I really enjoyed those schools. It was fun to get to know the kids and I could see myself in a lot of them, trying to learn how to win.”
Winning came to J.C. with hard work and the sacrifice of thousands of miles on the road. He crisscrossed the country, sometimes flying but more often driving. J.C. clinched more than 30 PRCA wins alongside his 12 qualifications to the NFR, including the Turquoise Circuit title in 1975, Mountain States Circuit title in 1985, four wins at California Rodeo Salinas, two at the Pendleton Round-Up, four at his hometown World’s Oldest Rodeo Prescott Frontier Days, and many more. One of his most unique achievements was splitting the bareback riding title with T.J. Walter at the Command Performance Rodeo in 1983, a White House invitation-only event. President Ronald Reagan awarded them their buckles.
J.C. won the world title at the NFR in 1981, a newlywed to his wife Margo, the backbone of their rodeo life, whom he married in 1980. They met through mutual rodeo friends, and Margo was no stranger to the rodeo world, having grown up with her brothers, John and Mike, who eventually founded Growney Brother Rodeo Company in 1979. Margo and J.C. welcomed their two daughters, Annie and Sammie, into the world, and the family traveled to as many of J.C.’s rodeos as possible, sometimes sleeping overnight in a van. There were not luxurious living quarters trailers at the time. They made Steamboat Springs, Colorado their home in the early 1980s. J.C. purchased a 50-acre ranch outside of town with his $50,000 winnings from the Calgary Stampede, won in 1982. “I had a friend that owned it, and when he was changing things around, I bought it. I’d seen so many people in the rodeo business that did well, but when they retired they ended up with nothing to show for it. But we were fortunate enough that we have a little to show for it, other than great memories.”
A year later, J.C.’s rodeo career took a hit when he got hung up on a bronc during the 1983 NFR in Oklahoma City. He was aboard Jim Sutton’s bronc Big Bud when he got hung up, dislocating his knee, breaking several ribs, and puncturing a lung. J.C. sat out much of the 1984 season as he recovered, competing in enough rodeos to land him in the top 20 that year. He contemplated retirement, but wanted to experience the finals one last time, which moved to Las Vegas in 1985. “I made the finals that year, but I was missing a pretty important part of raising kids and it was time for me to bow out. That year at the finals I was 36, the oldest guy in the bareback riding there. I won third in the average and about $28,000 and thought it was time to quit. It was pretty important for me to quit a winner.”
J.C. traded his bronc rein for ski poles after that, taking a job in the race department at the Steamboat Ski Area. Margo also worked there, teaching in the ski school. A few years earlier in 1982, J.C. had attended the second Cowboy Downhill after hearing what fun it was from all his friends who attended the year before. “I’d never been on skis, but I went to the Cowboy Downhill and started skiing, and it became a great love of mine.” Larry Mahan, who was one of the founders of the Cowboy Downhill, introduced J.C. to Billy Kidd, an Olympic skier who lives in Steamboat, and the two champions of their sports hit it off. As part of the race crew, J.C. set up courses and prepared the ski mountain for everything from world cup competitions to amateur races. “I got to hang out with guys who really skied well, like Billy Kidd, Hank Kashiwa, Dick Haller, and Jim “Moose” Barrows, who were pro ski racers. One of the reasons I liked it so well was that ski racing and rodeo had a lot of things in common. Both are a single sport, not a team sport. It was me and a bareback horse or me and the ski mountain, and I liked that challenge,” says J.C. who was even invited to a celebrity ski race in Vale, Colorado by President Gerald Ford.
Never one to let the grass grow beneath his cowboy boots, J.C. ran an outfitting business from his and Margo’s ranch for more than 20 years. He guided elk hunts, along with three or four other guides he hired, and Margo hosted and cooked for the visiting hunters, even packing a few elk out herself. “We had six mules and about ten saddle horses, and when they started getting old and I started getting old, we decided it was time to bow out. Our last year was in about 2017.”
While running the outfitting business, J.C. also divided his time between Colorado and Arizona, working as the general manager of Prescott Frontier Days from 2004 until 2020. He and Margo had moved back to Prescott, where J.C.’s parents were still living at the time. “I enjoyed it. It was being part of the rodeo business, and it was a whole different experience on the other side of the fence. We were there for 16 years and then we decided we needed to spend more time in our Colorado place. Now we spend most of our time up here.”
J.C. and Margo know the road between Colorado and Arizona well, however. They spend their winters in Aguila, Arizona, heading south in their RV before too much snow accumulates at their ranch, which sits at about 8,000 feet with the National Forest out their back gate. They load up their horses and stay at Silver Bit Ranch, owned by their friend Scott Whitworth. “We stay until the snow is about gone, which is late April or early May. Margo and I both team rope. She’s a really good header and a really good heeler, so I just do whatever other end. We jackpot a little bit but not much. We’re practicers, and we enjoy the camaraderie and being horseback.”
Their two daughters and their families also live in Arizona. J.C. and Margo’s seven grandchildren all rodeo, from the Arizona Junior Rodeo Association all the way up to the professional level. Their grandson JC Mortensen finished 21st in the PRCA bull riding this season, and his brother Jaxton Mortensen, competes in the PBR.
All of their children and grandchildren attended J.C.’s induction into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, along with his brother and sister, cousin, and members of Margo’s family. “I was thrilled in 1994 when they inducted me into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, and to be in the same halls as all my rodeo heroes I had in my lifetime is just unbelievable for me. It’s very surreal. Probably the biggest honor I have received is that my family can be part of it.”

[ Pro rodeo cowboy-turned-cartoonist entertains with “Earl” cartoons about the western way of life ]

Wally Badgett was a ranch kid-turned rodeo cowboy, then deputy sheriff -turned cartoonist.
And through it all, he’s had a sense of humor.
The Miles City, Montana man was born in 1952 on a ranch 75 miles south of Miles City, the son of Kirk and Lora Badgett.
Wally was intrigued by the sport of rodeo because of his older brother, who competed, and after high school, attended Sheridan (Wyo.) College, where he rode bulls and was the 1971 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association champion bull rider.
He competed in high school rodeo in every event but steer wrestling. After high school graduation in 1970, Badgett went to Sheridan, where he rodeoed collegiately two years, before he moved back to Montana.
From 1972 to 1975, he was on the pro rodeo trail, competing in the saddle bronc riding, calf roping, and bull riding, and qualifying in the bull riding for the 1974 National Finals Rodeo, finishing eighth in the world standings.
By 1975, he stayed closer to home, rodeoing in Montana and the surrounding states, and four years later, he was done. A self-professed homebody, he was married to Pam (they married in 1973) with two little children at home. And it was time to quit. “I had never left the arena in an ambulance,” he said, “and I thought, I’m way overdue.” With a family to support, “you start to think of other things.”
And he was pain-averse, he joked. “I’ve always hated pain, and I’m kind of a no-pain guy. Obviously, riding roughstock can be fairly painful at times.” His worst injuries were a broken ankle and pulled groins.
Wally and his brother leased part of the family ranch for awhile (his mother had had a serious stroke when he was four years old, and his dad was forced to sell the ranch to pay for her care.) Then, one day, while in Ashland, Montana, he ran into the deputy sergeant. The sergeant mentioned that they were looking to hire a police officer, so Wally applied and got the job.
For three years, he was a deputy sheriff in Rosebud County,(Forsyth), then the next nine years he spent as deputy sheriff in Custer County (Miles City).
It was an injured back that drew him into his next profession: drawing.
While laid up due to the back injury, he drew cartoons to entertain himself. He’d drawn as a child, but never anything serious.
And thus Earl the rancher was born.
As Badgett’s cartoons featuring Earl and his wife in various ranching situations grew in popularity, he got busier with the artwork.
“People were starting to call the sheriff’s office looking for the cartoonist instead of the cop,” he quipped.
He had to make a choice: continue in law enforcement, or build on the cartoon skills.
“I chose (cartooning) because there’s less chance of getting shot,” he joked. “I was always worried about getting shot (as a sheriff). I might have been the shakiest gun in the west. I was always worried someone would steal my gun and beat me up with it.”
Badgett’s cartoons with Earl and his situations tickle the fancy of ranchers, farmers, and those in the western lifestyle. They can be found in about 150 publications, from Texas to Canada, in rural and livestock newspapers.
When he started, his cartoon content was “inside cowboy humor, and if you weren’t a cowboy, you might not get it,” he said. “I realized, if I’m going to make this work, I have to draw so the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker can understand it, and it’s still funny.”
Badgett is always looking for content that he can work Earl into. “I keep my ears open. In our western world, you can be talking to someone, and they say something not intended to be funny, but it’s hilarious. I write those things down.”
Earl is depicted as a hard luck rancher whose cows tend to be thin, and whose wife often outwits him. He drives a 1950s truck and does some of his ranch work with a team. It’s a throwback to Badgett’s youthful years on the family ranch. He fed cattle with a team and has always been fascinated with that.
Badgett never gave a name to the wife, but occasionally, tongue-in-cheek, he’ll call her “She Who Must Be Obeyed.”
Every Earl cartoon Badgett draws has a dog in it (“I don’t think I’ve ever known a rancher that didn’t have a dog,”) and a magpie.
The magpie came by accident. Badgett included the bird occasionally, but one day, someone told him he looked for but couldn’t find the magpie in the latest Earl cartoon he’d read.
So Badgett, whose pen name is M.C. Tin Star, went back and included the bird in his previous cartoons and now draws one in every one. “It’s my trademark,” he said.
Much of his drawing is done in the winter, when the weather is cold. “The days are short, and sometimes I might do two or three or four in a day. I usually operate in a state of disorganization and confusion,” he joked.
Badgett served as the rodeo coach at Miles City (Mont.) Community College for about twenty years, first as assistant coach, then as head coach. He retired from that role in 2021.
Justin Miller was one of Wally’s rodeo athletes from 2008-2010.
The Lockwood, Mont. cowboy rode barebacks in college rodeo and appreciated his coach’s willingness to help.
“If you were going to work hard (in college rodeo), he was going to work hard with you. He would do whatever it took, for whatever you wanted,” Miller said. “He wouldn’t give up on you or leave you wanting. He’d help you out as much as you wanted.”
In his pro rodeo career, Wally held the record for the high marked ride bull ride in Houston for several years, at 85 points. “That doesn’t sound like much now,” he said, noting that markings have gotten higher.
He also said that bullfighters are more proficient now. “Back in my day, there might be one bullfighter, and he may or may not be any good. He might outrun you to the fence, but at least there might be someone to help you up if you got there, too.”
He and Pam have a son, Brett, who is married to Joni and lives in Miles City, with a daughter, and a daughter, Whitney, who is marked to Fakhrul Hasan; they have a son and a daughter and live in California. Both children are artistic; one of Brett’s sculptures, a half-life size of a steer roper, stands at the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in the back garden.
He cowboys for a local ranch, when they need him, but mostly stays home and enjoys Montana and rural life.
He refuses to use any digital device, social media, and doesn’t text. “I’ve seen a lot of changes, and I’ve been against almost all of them,” he joked. “But they happen anyway.”
Badgett is a 2023 Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame inductee and the third recipient of the Saddle of Honor, joining the 2018 Saddle of Honor recipient Charles M. Russell and 2019 recipient Jay Contway.