This week’s Rodeo Recap is dedicated to our Rodeo Legends. That right, this issue is Part One of a 2 part series dedicated to our ProRodeo Hall of Fame Inductees!

Located in Colorado Springs, Colorado near the PRCA’s headquarters, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame enshrines and honors rodeo’s best.

Since it’s opening in 1979, there have been 285 people, 36 animals and 31 rodeo committees inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. 

This year, it will induct 11 new members, including rodeo’s two and four-legged athletes July 11th through the 13th.

1. Bareback: Kaycee Feild

Utah native Kaycee Feild is one of the best Bareback riders to ever compete in the PRCA. Just one year following his retirement, Field has been awarded professional rodeo’s highest honor for his impressive rodeo resume: induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

Feild is a 6x Bareback World Champion, winning four consecutive world championships from 2011 to 2014 and back-to-back world title wins in 2020 and 2021. He’s won the National Finals Rodeo Average Bareback title four times.

Since becoming a PRCA member in 2007, Feild made 13 total trips to the NFR, qualifying eight years in a row from 2008 to 2015 and five more from 2018 to 2022.

At the conclusion of the 2022 season, Feilds was second in the world and ended the season with over $316,000 in earnings, $185,000 of which came from that year’s NFR.

Feild follows in his father’s footsteps, a Hall of Fame inductee himself. He and his dad are believed to be the first father and son duo inducted into the Hall of Fame as contestants.

Of his induction in the Hall itself, Feild says, “What an amazing honor.”

First and foremost, Feild credits his father with his success. On top of that, Feild stated in an interview with the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, “My resiliency, grit, determination all played into what I did.”

2. Contract Personnel: Darrell Diefenbach

Darrell Diefenbach is arguably one of the best bullfighters to ever work inside a rodeo arena. 

Bullfighters at the NFR are selected by the top 20 Bull Riders of the current rodeo season, so being selected by the year’s best contestants to protect them at the Superbowl of Rodeo and give each their best shot at a World Championship is a true honor. 

Diefenbach is originally from Australia where he learned to fight bulls. After moving to the United States in 1998, he went on to work the likes of rodeos such as the National Circuit finals Rodeo, the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Finals, the Professional Bull Riders World Finals and the Daddy of them all, Cheyenne Frontier Days. 

Bullfighting is a dangerous profession to say the least. It takes the very bravest and toughest to step between a rodeo contestant and an 1800-pound bull.

Now, his grit and determination will be forever immortalized with an induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. 

“I just remember being a 17-year-old kid in Australia getting up every day and going to work. I had my list of goals in my bedroom at home and they were each small steps, one at a time. I had the goal to the make the NFR and I got that done at 27,” said Diefenbach in an interview to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

He went on to say his very last goal was to be inducted into the Hall saying, “Now, here we are.”

3. Notable: J.D. Yates

It’s every rodeo contestant’s dream to hold an NFR record; J.D. Yates holds three.

Yates grew up in a rodeo family. Yates, his dad and his sister, Kelly are the only father-son-daughter trio to compete at the NFR in the same year. Of his 21 NFR qualifications, Yates Team Roped with his father Dick, for 13.

In fact, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame is not Yates’s only induction this year, he’ll also be inducted into the AQHA Hall of Fame in the fall in celebration of his impressive career as not only a rodeo competitor but a true horseman.

He’s previously also been inducted into the Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Fame where he won the Steer Roping multiple times and the All-Around in 1994.

Aside from Professional Rodeo, Yates won 47 American Quarter Horse Association World Championships and continues to be a renowned and sought-after Team Roping instructor.

Of his ProRodeo Hall of Fame induction, Yates says, “Anybody that says it isn’t a dream come true to get into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame is not telling the truth. For me to be put in with the people who are in there is an amazing honor.”

4. Livestock: #171 Mr. T

The ProRodeo Hall of Fame is unique in the fact that it does not just induct people, but animals too. Rodeo would be nothing without its animal athletes, and Burns Rodeo Company’s, #171 Mr. T was one of the best. 

Mr. T bucked at the Thomas & Mack six years in a row. Mr. T was the 1986 PRCA Bull of the Year and Bull of the NFR in 1986 and 1989. “He was just extremely athletic,” says Hal Burns, owner of Mr. T and Burns Rodeo Company.

On top of being honored as one of the newest ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductees, Mr. T is also honored with an Xtreme Bulls competition in his name in Laramie, Wyoming, his home before retiring in Red Bluff, California. 

5. Barrel Racing: Marlene (Eddleman) McRae

Colorado’s Marlene McRae is the epitome of a cowgirl.

Fittingly, it was current WPRA President, Jimmie Munroe who called McRae to deliver the news of McRae’s induction personally. In an interview, McRae said of the phone call, “It was great to hear it from Jimmie, that was outstanding in itself.”

“This is a dream come true,” says McRae of her induction. “Rodeo has made so many of my dreams come true and I would have to say this tops the cake.”

Outside the Thomas & Mack, McRae won the Calgary Stampede five times and was the gold medalist at the rodeo exhibition as a part of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games.

Since her rodeo career, McRae has taught over 500 barrel racing clinics internationally, written and published a book titled, Barrel Racing 101 and developed her own line of saddles and tack including the first ever carbon fiber saddle tree.

Being from Colorado, McRae grew up around the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, so the fact WPRA members are now inducted is a matter especially close to her heart. Now, McRae will join them in the Hall’s famous displays.

Check back next week and each week thereafter for all the highlights on your favorite contestants as they work their way down the 2024 rodeo road.