Category: Archive

story by Steve Alexander, Blaine County Journal; PRCA, and Siri Stevens

Bob Ragsdale was an all-around Montana cowboy, competing in steer wrestling, as well as calf roping and team roping. He qualified for the National Finals Rodeo on 22 separate occasions. Bob never won a world title, but his impact on rodeo has been profound.
He was the Montana High School All-Around Champion in 1956, and became an official member of the PRCA in 1961. He was one of only six left-handed tie-down ropers to qualify for the NFR, and he did so for 15 consecutive years from 1961-75. In that 15-year span, he finished as high as fourth in the world, and never lower than ninth. He competed at the NFR in steer wrestling five times, with two qualifications in team roping as well. Bob earned nine Top 10 finishes at the NFR in the all-around, including a second-place standing in 1972. He continued his support of rodeo by serving as the Vice President (1971-72) and President (1973-75) of the Rodeo Cowboys Association, and is credited as the one to propose the association include “Professional” to the organization’s formal title in 1975. – courtesy of PRCA
Bob was born October 23, 1936 in Harlem, Montana. His father, Slim, always had horses and the family split their time between farming and living in town. “Wherever we were living dad would have horses and they would wander from north of Harlem to the Canadian border.” Bob’s mom told a story about a man coming to the house to see if Bob would round up some horses for him. When the man was introduced to Bob, and saw that he was just a little kid, the man said, “those horses are big,” to which Bob replied, “I’ll take a big rope.”
Bob competed in the Montana High School rodeo. “Back then there was no divisional or regional rodeos, you went to state for a tournament that anyone could enter so long as you preregistered. I won Montana All Around and went on to the high school Nationals in Reno. I placed in a couple of events, but no wins.”
In October, right out of high school, Bob went to the Toots Mansfield Roping School in Texas. “He was a great guy; he showed me how to ‘flank’ a calf. At the time most professional ropers were legging calves. That immediately took a couple of seconds off my time.” To cover the expenses of getting to Texas and paying for the roping school Bob and his dad went to the bank in Harlem and borrowed $300 for the month-long school.
Bob met his wife, Ree, through high school. “We both went to the high school rodeos.” Ree and Bob married in December 29, 1956, after he completed the roping school and returned to Montana. “It was a pretty busy year.” He worked in the oil fields in the winter and that next summer, in 1957, went back into rodeo, working in Yellowstone Park and the following summer at the Cody Night Rodeo. “It was a rodeo,” Bob said, “but it was really a tourist show. We would work maintenance on the grounds for half the day, then do the rodeo show. They were looking for a calf roper, bulldogger and bareback bronc rider. That was 1957 and it was the last time I ever got on rough stock in the rodeo.”

In 1958 the couple welcomed twin girls, Cathy and Cindy; then another girl, Jamie, in 1961.
“With plans to ‘fill my permit’ with the RCA (becoming a member of the Rodeo Cowboys Association, later the PRCA) at the end of the rodeo season in 1961,” Bob said, “I won big at a rodeo in Caldwell, Idaho. The RCA representative for that region was waiting for me and said, “You had better have your permit before you show up at the next RCA rodeo.” Members of the RCA resented non-members winning and reducing members’ chances to go to the year-end national rodeo.”
He moved his family to Chowchilla, California, in 1961 at the invitation of a farmer/rancher who also was a roper. “Dan Branco had a place where we could keep horses and practice roping.” They saved enough money rodeoing to buy a place there and that was home until just a few years ago when they retired. They now spend winters in Bakersfield, California and summers at their place in Landusky, Montana.
Beginning in 1961, for the next fifteen years, Bob made his living roping calves, steer wrestling and team roping. “I followed the money to choose rodeos. In the 1960-70’s I’d go to 90-100 rodeos a year. If I got into a slump I’d do a small rodeo to earn some money and get back on the RCA (PRCA) tour for the bigger rodeos.” He drove a station wagon and it was equipped with a grub box. “We’d camp out – the twins were small enough they could sleep in the front seat and Ree and I slept in the back.”
Because Bob roped left handed, he had to have horses that were comfortable seeing the rope on their left side. “A horse could be startled if it wasn’t used to a left-handed roper, which meant I had to have my own horse, sometimes more than one horse to keep up with the rodeo schedule.” He said often Ree and the kids would be driving one rig, pulling a horse trailer toward an upcoming rodeo, and he would be pulling a different horse to another rodeo on his schedule.
He not only competed, he gave back to the industry through his service as an office holder and active volunteer in a number of rodeo associated groups and as a spokesperson for rodeo. After that, he continued competing in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association, winning three All Around titles, four calf roping titles and one ribbon roping title.

In 1983 Mac Baldrige, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Ronald Reagan, organized an ‘exhibition’ rodeo for the President and selected guests. He asked Bob to rope in the exhibition which was staged in an arena just outside Washington, DC. Bob also helped create Friends of Rodeo (FoR), a non-partisan group that responded to animal rights issues. “Through FoR we did a better job of telling our side to the media and even instituted ‘chute tours’ so critics and media personnel could see reality about animal treatment.” Bob served as President of FoR and was on governing boards of several other rodeo related organizations, including the Senior Pro Rodeo executive board, during the 1990’s.
From 1973 to 1981 Bob worked for Sears as a consultant for the company’s western wear brand of clothing. “There were several professional cowboys interviewed and I was chosen to help Sears with their western wear line of clothing.” He described his role as “helping Sears clothing buyers and designers meet with rodeo fans and cowboys to see what kinds of clothing they were wearing or would like to see available. I even went to some of the markets with the Sears buyers to help choose the clothing for the next year’s catalog.” Bob often was photographed in Sears western wear for their catalogs and in 1973 was on the cover of the annual western wear catalog.
In the last two decades he’s been recognized with a number of inductions into rodeo related organizations: the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame, St. Paul, Oregon (2001); the Senior Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame (2001); the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City (2003) and The Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame in Billings. His latest accomplishment happened a few weeks ago in Colorado Springs, where he was inducted into the PRCA ProRodeo Hall of Fame. “It was a great event. I had no idea what to expect – I’ve never been to one before. This was the best one – it was developed by the professional cowboy.”
Bob and Ree saw the world through his rodeo career. Cathy Watkins, one of their twin daughters remembers going to Hawaii with her parents as a result of Bob’s rodeo career. “After Denny (Cathy’s husband and a professional team roper) and I were married we were visiting mom and dad and a guy drove up into the yard. He was from Hawaii and wanted dad to come to Hawaii and teach a roping school. We all went to Hawaii and while dad taught ropers the rest of us were treated to the sites of the islands. I think it was at that point I realized just how special my dad’s role was in rodeo-he was known all over the world. My sisters and I got to see a lot of things and meet a lot of interesting people because of his career choice.” As to interesting people, Cathy told about meeting a fellow teenager she and her sister met while traveling with their dad. The teenager played the guitar and the girls all sang together. The guitar player was Reba McEntire, whose dad and older brother were both accomplished ropers. “Of course none of us kids, at that time, had any idea of how Reba would develop into a famous singer and actress.”
For Bob, the biggest change in rodeo is in the rodeo competitors and the amount of money they make. “When I first got into professional rodeo, most of us were cowboys. The competitors now are truly athletes, devoting their lives to the sport and continually doing things to improve their ability to compete.” In the old days, “We often had to work other jobs between rodeos to keep our families going.”
And the winnings have increased. “When I was RCA All Around runner up at the NFR in 1972, I think first place for All Around paid about $40,000. That number now is in the neighborhood of $300,000-400,000.
“Whatever I’ve been able to accomplish has been through rodeo. I tore my knee up in 1976, and started looking for other things to do. But I had put enough away and then I got into the construction business. Everything I was able to do was because of rodeo.”

In 1957, Ken Adams was the year-end NIRA Bull Riding Champion. The Arizona cowboy qualified four times for the CNFR and competed there twice when it was held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. As a college student on a shoestring budget, he used his winnings to buy books while attending Arizona State University, and his experiences inspired him to start a scholarship for the NIRA Bull Riding Rookie of the Year four years ago. Since then, the NIRA Alumni have created a scholarship for the rookie of the year in each event, and in 2017 alone, they contributed $10,500 in scholarships to the CNFR.
Born in 1933 to Kenneth and Gladys Adams, Ken was the second of three boys. His parents had moved from Missouri during the Great Depression, and while en route to California, Ken’s dad was offered a job driving delivery trucks in Arizona. The family stayed and made their home near Phoenix, and Ken got his first job riding horses with a girl his age at a livestock auction nearby when he was 11 or 12. “I hadn’t ridden at all to speak of – we just started riding whatever horse we could a hold of,” Ken recalls. “We got a dollar apiece riding horses for them back in the ‘40s. I guess people thought it was a pretty good horse if a couple of kids could ride it, but anyone could ride in that ring.”

Not long after that, Ken started riding calves and cows in junior rodeos around the area, catching a ride with anyone who had a car. “I think the first time I ever won money, I was riding cows. The horses didn’t show up to the rodeo, so I got into cow riding. Someone would give you tips, but mostly they just let you get on and learn. There were no schools, and I didn’t have anybody I traveled with that was older, so all of us were pretty much in the same boat. I think the opportunities to learn are much improved now, and the biggest thing to me is videotaping performances to watch them and learn.”
Ken continued riding roughstock in the bareback and bull riding, though he won the most riding bulls. “I think at the time I had really good balance, and it was easier to find bull ridings than anything else.” Ken also worked on two or three ranches during high school, including the Boquillas Ranch, which now belongs to the Navajo Nation and is in the top 25 of the largest working cattle ranches in the United States. “I gathered horses for them, and then I’d enter rodeos and hope I learned something every time. The Palace Bar in Prescott was like an employment agency. Ranchers who needed a cowboy would go in there, or if you needed a job you went in there,” says Ken. He also worked at the copper mine in Baghdad, Arizona, for several months, living on site and hauling debris from the mill, but he hadn’t been there long when he was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. Although the cease-fire was signed by the time Ken finished basic training, he still shipped to South Korea where he drove supply trucks. “There was not much glamour in our jobs, unless you wanted to eat! Seoul was pretty much a mess – it had changed hands four times, but those trucks we had could go pretty much anywhere. All the roads were narrow and dirt, and in the summer they were very dusty. They had huge trucks, but the ones I was driving were three axles.”
Ken was discharged from the Army in 1955, and he enrolled at Arizona State University in 1956, majoring in animal science. Though he had dropped out of high school, he finished his GED in the Army, and he joined the rodeo team and competed in the West Coast Region. He even tried his hand at steer wrestling. “I wasn’t too good in timed events. I told everybody I had a record in the bulldogging – I was in the bulldogging seven or eight times and never got a flag,” Ken says with a laugh. He was helped along the way by college teammates John Fincher and Jon Nickerson. Ken enjoyed rodeoing in California and as far north as Klamath, Oregon. He was also a member of the RCA when a membership cost $10, and on summer breaks, he competed in Colorado, Utah, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, though many of his favorites were in Arizona, such as Phoenix, Prescott, and Tucson. “Some of the little towns didn’t have anything (like motels) to sleep in, so we’d sleep in the back of a car. You stayed in rooms when you were prosperous, and we’d split rooms with three or four people usually.”

Ken met his wife, Sharon, at school, and they were married after he graduated and she finished her teaching certificate. “We got married in July of 1960. I’d been teaching school for a year, and Ken won second in the bull riding at Prescott, so we had enough money to get married,” says Sharon. After he finished college, Ken was a brand inspector for several sale barns, then went into the crop spraying business with his brother-in-law before finding his niche in the animal health business selling medicine. Though Ken quit rodeoing not long after they were married, he stayed involved with rodeo by judging several of the law enforcement rodeos a college friend of his organized, along with jackpot bull ridings. In the late 1970s, one of Ken’s friends Stan Harter, a college champion tie-down roper, asked Ken to be the manager of the PRCA Turquoise Circuit when the circuit system was just getting started. Ken served on the board for three or four years and helped put on the finals, along with soliciting saddle donations. “The Turquoise Circuit Finals Rodeo was in Phoenix at the fairgrounds, and for some reason, there was a mix-up one year and all of the trophy saddles got shipped to our house!” says Sharon. “Each saddle came in a big box, and we had them everywhere in the house because we couldn’t leave them outdoors.”
Ken became involved in the NIRA Alumni when he attended the NIRA reunion in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1997, the 40th anniversary of his NIRA bull riding championship. The following year, his friend Stan Harter was waiting for a kidney transplant, and he asked Ken to represent him on the NIRA Alumni board during the annual meeting. Together, Ken and NIRA founder, Evelyn Bruce Kingsbery, put together the 50th Anniversary Reunion of the NIRA in 1999, and Ken was president of the NIRA Alumni from 1999-2001. Sharon served as the NIRA Alumni secretary for 12 years, and Ken continues to serve on the board of directors. He hasn’t missed a performance of the CNFR since he started attending 20 years ago. When he started raising money for his bull riding rookie of the year scholarship, his plan was to ask former champions to donate $100 each, and by the next year, donations were coming in to provide scholarships for all nine college rodeo events, including team roping header and heeler. “I never had a scholarship, and even the year I won, I was never offered a scholarship,” Ken explains. “They’re giving quite a few scholarships now, but I just thought the rookie scholarship was something somebody wasn’t already covering.”
When they’re not off to the next CNFR, Ken and Sharon make their home in Phoenix, not far from where Ken grew up. They have a son, Ira Adams, and daughter, Adrienne Schiele, and her husband, Mark Schiele, while Ken and Sharon’s two grandsons, Mike and Matt Schiele, live in California. Ken stays current with rodeo via television and never misses a rodeo or bull riding, while he wrote and published a book of short stories about rodeo called “Rodeos, Pig Races & Other Cowboy Stories.” He and Sharon continue their passion of supporting the NIRA and alumni, and they are searching for all NIRA champions, top finishers, faculty, and board members from years ending in eight to join them for the 2018 Annual Reunion.

courtesy of PRCA, photos by Rodeo News

Stars converged at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame Saturday as a new class was enshrined into the prestigious Hall.
Randy Corley, a 12-time PRCA Announcer of the Year, joined five world champions to headline the 12-member 2017 induction class.

Corley, along with gold buckle winners including the late Buck Rutherford (all-around, 1954), Enoch Walker (saddle bronc riding, 1960), Tommy Puryear (steer wrestling, 1974), Mike Beers (team roping, 1984) and Cody Custer (bull riding, 1992), were enshrined with rodeo notable Bob Ragsdale, a 22-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier in three events.
Also inducted into the Hall were four-time bareback horse of the year, Christensen Bros.’ Smith & Velvet, and the committee for the Ogden (Utah) Pioneer Days.
For the first time in the history of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, barrel racers from the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) were amongst the class of inductees. Their inaugural class was comprised of Wanda Harper Bush, Charmayne James and a joint PRCA/WPRA equine inductee – Star Plaudit “Red.”
Corley’s résumé is ProRodeo Hall of Fame worthy. He has been selected PRCA Announcer of the Year 12 times (1984, 1990-96, 1998, 2003, 2011 and 2015). He also has been an announcer at the National Finals Rodeo 16 times (1985-86, 1992, 1994-96, 2007-2016).
“It was the worst night of sleep I had (Friday night) in 45 years,” Corley said. “I just think it was nerves. There are 259 people in the Hall and that’s not a huge number for a Hall that opened in 1979. I’m in a pretty select group and I’m so honored. My whole thing is cowboys are the stars. When they are nodding their head, you’ve already told everyone who they are.
“That’s what I strive for, and have forever, and to be a good person to everybody, inside the arena and outside the arena. Those are the deals that I think make you a better announcer because then you’re true, and true is the best way to announce.”
Puryear qualified for the NFR nine times, eight of which were consecutive, from 1971-78, and then again in 1983. The Texas bulldogger also won the gold buckle in 1974 and the NFR average title in 1976.
“This day is something that you never plan for when you’re out rodeoing. I’ve been ready for this to happen so I can stop thinking about it – it’s something you think about every day since the call that you’re in the Hall of Fame,” Puryear said. “One of the main reasons I’m here today is because of the people I had around me who supported and helped me. So many friends and family contributed to this. I never owned my own horse – I always traveled with horsemen and stayed in a positive rig. We’d go to 120 rodeos a year, and we loved every second of it.”

Puryear first joined the PRCA in 1970, and now, 47 years later, he’s recognized as one of the best steer wrestlers in PRCA history.
“Leon (Bauerle) and I rode up to Colorado Springs together – we didn’t fly, we drove up in the truck from Texas together just like we used to,” Puryear said. “It was one for the road and to relive the old times, and we still get along really well. Leon was always easy to travel with, as long as you agreed with him. But a great deal of the credit for me being here is due to Leon and his horses.”
Rutherford was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame more than half a century after he was topping the world standings across four events – bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and bull riding.
The Oklahoma cowboy was in the Top 5 of the world standings 11 times between 1949-57, and was the 1954 all-around world champion and the first cowboy to ever win more than $40,000 in a single year (approximately $362,235 in 2017 dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
“It’s quite an honor, and he’s a part of history,” said Claudine Rutherford, Buck’s sister-in-law. “He could do anything.”
Becky Raetzsch, Rutherford’s daughter, also was thrilled about the honor bestowed on her father.
“It’s exciting, and it gives us a chance to learn more about the history of him,” she said. “It really is quite an honor. I have his grandchildren here, all of his great-grandchildren are here, so it’s really exciting for all of them.”
Although he never won an individual event championship, he placed second in the bareback riding standings the same year he won the all-around title.
Rutherford twice finished third in the bull riding world standings (1951 and 1954).
His rodeo earnings fell flat after a bad spill slipped a disk in his back in November 1958. He then retired from rodeo and resumed ranching in his hometown until his death at 58 years old on April 28, 1988.
Walker, who won both the 1960 saddle bronc riding world championship and NFR average title, took to the skies in his ascent to ProRodeo fame – qualifying for 10 NFRs during his 20-year tenure with the Rodeo Cowboys Association.
“It’s a pretty cool deal and pretty humbling to be around the guys who are world champs. I knew a lot of them like Cody Custer and Mike Beers, and you look up to a lot of those guys. My father would have been humbled to be with them,” said Jack Walker, one of Enoch’s sons.
In 1960, the 28-year-old Walker had been knocking on the door of a gold buckle for years, placing third in 1957, second in 1958 and third again in 1959.
Walker entered the 1960 season with a plan for earning the gold buckle that literally took flight. He teamed up with Paul Templeton, who flew him from one rodeo to the next when his rodeo road trips got too hectic.
Walker arrived at the NFR in Dallas, Texas, leading the pack with $20,832 earned that season by placing 126 times at 56 rodeos and winning 21 rodeos throughout 1960, including Salinas, Calif., and Fort Worth, Texas.
He rode all 10 horses at the NFR in Dallas, placing on five of them – winning the NFR and the world title.
“I think it would have been great if he could have been here,” Jack Walker said. “It would have meant everything to him because of the caliber of people in the (ProRodeo) Hall of Fame; he would have thought it was really cool. These guys were all top of the world in their day, and I was on the bottom looking up, so it’s humbling for me to be here, but it would have been special for him to have seen it.”
Beers, a heeler, won his world championship while roping with header Dee Pickett, who was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2003. Beers qualified for the NFR 23 times in team roping (1980-95, 1997-98, 2000-03, 2007). He also qualified for the NFR in tie-down roping in 1981, 1983 and 1985 and for the Clem McSpadden National Finals Steer Roping in 1992.
“I’m going into rodeo immortality and 50 years from now, they are still going to remember my name,” Beers said. “That’s something you never think about when you’re a kid growing up rodeoing. You want to win a championship or make the Finals, but it is never a thought of being in the Hall of Fame. There’s three things I guess in my career I really remember. One was winning the world championship with Dee Pickett, the second one was making the Finals with my son, Brandon, in 2007, and now being inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. This is the icing on the cake.”
Custer’s eight trips to the NFR and 1992 bull riding world championship win landed him in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

“I found out that my permanent position will be next to John Quintana, and that’s a big deal because he was my hero as a kid,” Custer said. “It’s one of those deals where I’ve looked at the stuff here (at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame) and to see it next to a guy like that and then Ronnie Rossen and Charlie Sampson, it’s a cool deal. I took a picture of it, and I’ll send it to his (Quintana’s) son. I never met John as an adult, but I knew him as a kid and he made me feel like I belonged. I remember how he made me feel as a kid, and I try do that for kids now.”
Custer first joined the PRCA in 1985 and went on to qualify for the NFR from 1987-92, and again in 1998-99. He remained an active competitor through 2002.
“The people that have come here to be with me – everyone has a piece of this and it’s not just mine,” Custer said. “Corey Navarre is here too, I rodeoed with him and if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have gone to the NFR in 1999 because I had wanted to go home.
“I told everyone here with me that this is theirs too – everyone from my mom and dad to the guys I rodeoed with, it’s an awesome thing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, everything I accomplished in the arena was because of my hard work and some talent. Being inducted is just a gift in my book.”
Ragsdale, for most of his adult life, has served the sport of rodeo as a competitor and as an ambassador. On Saturday, the cowboy they call “Rags” added “Hall of Famer” to his one-of-a-kind résumé.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Ragsdale said. “It’s just been a great experience. Kind of the last of the big events probably, for me. I’m not rodeoing anymore, so I’m reminiscing like we used to in the old days.”
Ragsdale, a 22-time NFR qualifier in steer wrestling, team roping and tie-down roping, recognized he will forever be cemented into history among the legends of the sport he holds so dear.
“Going through the Hall, that’s what’s amazing,” he said. “I know so many of them, and I can remember stories, and when I see someone, a story will pop up in my head or some event that happened. It’s neat. Even though they’re gone, I relive that in my mind.”
Ragsdale became the first and only left-handed roper to qualify for the NFR for 15 consecutive years from 1961-75. He also served as both the Vice President and President of the Rodeo Cowboys Association in the early ‘70s, and is credited as the one to propose the association include “Professional” to the organization’s formal title.

Smith & Velvet was the definition of a late bloomer.
The horse, which was honored as the PRCA’s top bareback horse four times (1977, as Mr. Smith, and then 1979-80 and 1982, as Smith & Velvet), didn’t become an award-winning bucker until he was into his 20s.
This is Bobby Christensen’s third horse to be inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. Christensen also has saddle bronc horses Miss Klamath (1998) and War Paint (2011) in the Hall, but Smith & Velvet is his first bareback horse to be enshrined.
“Early on, I never would’ve believed that he’d be in the Hall of Fame, but after he won horse of the year a few times I was thinking it would happen. It’s been 34 years since the horse died – I think the best way to describe this is late in coming, but well-deserved.
“When Smith & Velvet was in his prime, everybody wanted to see him and everybody wanted him at their rodeo. I could go to a committee and say, ‘Hey, I have the bareback horse of the year if you want to hire me to bring stock to your rodeo.’ That worked a lot of places.
“Smith & Velvet knew what he was doing, and liked what he was doing. He was even-tempered, and I rode him in his early years. But I wouldn’t have wanted to ride him in his later years, that’s for sure.”
Smith & Velvet died in 1983 in a tragic car accident that killed many of Christensen’s prized NFR horses. He says the horse was the pride and joy of his rodeo company.
The Ogden (Utah) Pioneer Days celebrated its 83rd year of existence July 20-24.
The event has come a long way since its inception in 1934, when Ogden City Mayor Harman W. Peery organized a Western festival to boost the spirits of the locals and entice tourists to visit the city.
“We just got done with this year’s rodeo, and it really settled in with the community and the rodeo and the committee,” said Dave Halverson, the rodeo’s director. “We have had honors and people have shed tears of joy. People have been outstanding, and we are humbly honored to be recognized.”
The Ogden Pioneer Days is more than just a rodeo, it’s an event. It includes concerts, parades, farmer’s markets, and, of course, the rodeo at historic Ogden Pioneer Stadium.
“When you look at the community of Ogden – this is one of the biggest awards this city will receive, and so on behalf of the committee and the city, we’re honored and delighted to be so recognized,” said Alan Hall, chairman of the Ogden Pioneer Foundation. “We appreciate the (ProRodeo) Hall of Fame and the committee for the selection and all those who make this organization world class.”
Bush was multi-talented, becoming the most decorated cowgirl in the history of the WPRA (formerly the Girls Rodeo Association).
When the GRA first formed in 1948, Bush was one of the first to sign-up. All totaled, she won 32 world titles – nine all-around (1952, 1957-58, 1962-65, 1968-69), two barrel racing (1952-53), two cutting (1966, 1969), one flag race (1969), 11 calf roping (1951-56, 1960, 1962, 1964, 1966-67) and seven ribbon roping titles (1951, 1953-54, 1956-59). She finished as reserve world champion in barrel racing three separate times.
While Bush’s barrel racing world titles came before the NFR began, she qualified seven times (1959-60, 1962-65, and 1974) for the NFR during her career.
“I’m honored to accept this honor for my mom, a famous legend, an icon, and my very best friend,” said Shanna Bush, Wanda’s daughter, who qualified for the NFR in 1984. “For my dear uncle, A.C. Harper, who said my mom was a world champion sister. How deserving to be the first woman inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. History is made today, and she did it by being just Wanda.”
Bush was inducted posthumously, having passed away Dec. 29, 2015.

“She was one to shy away from publicity, interviews and pictures,” Shanna said. “Material things just didn’t mean much to mom. She taught many movie stars, singers, governors, vice presidents and their kids to ride, or they bought horses from us. But no one ever knew when they came or went from our ranch, that’s just how our family was. She was a really appreciative person always content with just what she had.”
James may have had to wait 22 years to join her legendary horse, Scamper, in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, but was ecstatic to be a part of this historic class.
“I finally get to join him (Scamper), and that’s emotional,” said James, who now makes her home in Boerne, Texas. “Today is really a big deal, not only for me, my family, but I think for all the barrel racers of the WPRA. I couldn’t be more proud and humbled to be one of the first inductees as one of the barrel racers.”
James, who grew up in Clayton, N.M., the home of the very first barrel racing National Finals Rodeo in 1959, won the first of 10 consecutive world titles at the youthful age of 14 in 1984.
James was the first WPRA member to wear the coveted No. 1 back number in 1987, and became the first barrel racer to cross the $1 million mark in career earnings. In addition to the 10 consecutive world titles (1984-1993), James and Scamper won the NFR average title six times (1984, 1986-87, 1989-90 and 1993). In 1996, Scamper became the first and only barrel horse (until 2017) to be inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
James would add a cherry on top of her illustrious career, returning to the top of the sport aboard Cruiser (Cruisin on Six) in 2002, winning her 11th world title and seventh NFR average title.
“My mom traveled a million miles with me and my whole family sacrificed, so this induction is not just about me, but also your family and friends,” James said. “The horses along the way, I couldn’t have been here without the great horses. Obviously, Scamper was a godsend. This is just like icing on the cake getting up here today and accepting this honor.”
Star Plaudit “Red” holds a very unique record in the world of professional rodeo, one that is not likely to ever be duplicated. The bay gelding won two world championships in the sport in a single year and contributed to a third, at the age of 12.
In 1962, Red, as he was affectionately known, carried his owner Sherry (Combs) Johnson to the GRA world title in the barrel racing. The horse also helped close family friend Tom Nesmith to the RCA world title in the steer wrestling, as well as the RCA all-around championship.
Johnson credits the steer wrestling with teaching Red how to run hard through the pattern.
“He (Red) was such a special, special horse,” Johnson said. “He was a really good bulldogging horse. We went to Denver, his first rodeo, and we won the go and I found out that day what run meant. He always ran his hardest. He was the best horse. I never had a horse like him, and he had heart. I believe that a barrel racer better know her barrel horse better than her husband, and I think we do.”
Red passed away at the age of 22.
With the 2017 class, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame now has enshrined 259 people, 33 animals and 28 rodeo committees.