Rodeo Recap: Special Edition

The ProRodeo Hall of Fame is a landmark of Western lifestyle and rodeo education, history and impact.

Marked by the iconic bronze statue of Hall of Fame bronc rider, Casey Tibbs and the infamous bronc Necktie, the iconic museum is home to artifacts from some of rodeo’s best.

There, guests can see chaps, trophies, buckles and more from former World Champions, Hall of Fame Inductees, rodeo queens, rodeo clowns and everything in between.

This year’s 11 ProRodeo Hall of Fame Inductees will have their own dedicated display sharing stories and memorabilia from their rodeo careers. 

6. Bull Riding: Blue Stone

If you ask the late Blue Stone’s peers their thoughts on the Bull Rider, they’ll sing his praises. 

In an interview with the Wrangler Network, Myron Duarte said, “Blue was a competitor and he brought me to my best level, and he made everybody’s game better. That’s what World Champions do.”

Stone made two trips to the NFR, both in 2001 and 2002.

He won the Bull Riding World Championship both years. In 2001, Stone entered the NFR ranked 12^th in the World Standings and in 2002 entered eighth. Stone covered 14 of his 20 bulls in both NFR appearances and won his first World Title by just $10,000 over second place, his second title by less than $9,000. 

“Blue came on the scene and won two world titles and it was like where in the heck did he come from?” said 6x NFR qualifier Fred Boettcher in an interview with the Wrangler Network. 

Those two World Titles by Stone were the first back-to-back Bull Riding World Championships since Don Gay in 1979-81. Stone also shares the NFR Round 1 Bull Riding record with Don Gay, both rode for 94 points in 2001, Stone on Gilbert Diamond G Rodeos’, Mr. Skoal’s USA. 

“Blue would do anything for anybody,” Duarte said. “He was truly a cowboy and part of the big rodeo family. He was a person who made rodeo better for the generations we see today.”

7. Team Roping: Art Arnold

Team Roping’s Art Arnold is known as one of the best team ropers of all time. 

Having competed in the inaugural National Finals Rodeo in 1959 in Dallas, Texas, many team ropers credit Arnold as the pioneer who paved the way for the sport today. 

Arnold was a member of the Rodeo Cowboys Association, the precursor to the PRCA before the association changed its name in 1975. He is a 10x NFR qualifier and competed in three different locations as the NFR moved across the U.S. including Dallas, Los Angeles and Oklahoma City.

Arnold won the world as the RCA’s Team Roping World Champion in 1968. 

“It took a lot of practice and trying to perfect techniques and just watching guys and learning from guys who did it well,” Arnold says of his Team Roping success. As for what it means to him to be one of the newest ProRodeo Hall of Famers, “This means a lot, because there are not a lot of people who (get to be inducted.)” 

8. Barrel Racing: Jeana Day

When current Women’s Professional Rodeo Association President, Jimmie Munroe called Jeana Day to tell her she was being inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Day recalled being speechless in an interview with the Hall.

“For those that know me, it takes a lot for me to be speechless,” said Day. 

Day qualified for the NFR six times, taking second place in the world four years in a row before she won the Barrel Racing World Championship in 1974.

She did so aboard a horse named, Poco Excuse, a smaller gelding with cow horse breeding. Despite running against some of the best barrel-bred horses in the world, many say it was Poco Excuse’s big try and even bigger heart that helped him and Day to their World Title.

In Poco’s honor, the WPRA now awards the ‘Horse with the Most Heart’ award to equine athletes who echo his small but mighty determination at the NFR every year.

Outside of her rodeo career, Day spent 11 years on the WPRA Board of Directors. She was part of a major drive by the Association to push for equal money in the Barrel Racing.

“I feel so honored and blessed to be receiving this news today,” Day says of her induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, “I am just all smiles.”

9. Stock Contractor: Sammy Andrews

Sammy Andrews is a third generation stock contractor. His father, B.D. Andrews was a stock contractor in the 1940s and 1950s. In 1980, Andrews formed his own stock contracting company, aptly named Andrews Rodeo Company and by 1987, the Company was producing professional PRCA rodeos. Andrews Rodeo Company was recognized as the PRCA’s Stock Contractor of the Year in 2002.

Andrews Rodeo Company owned multiple PRCA Bucking Bulls of the Year including Stoals Outlaw Willie, Skat Ket and the infamous Bodacious, a 2x Bull of the Year and a 3x Bull of the NFR. Only eight qualified rides were ever made on Bodacious out of 135 attempts. 

Andrews introduced a breeding program that has allowed the bloodlines of superstar stock like Bodacious to live on in the stock of today’s professional rodeos. For his efforts, Andrews and his livestock have been featured in national media coverage on ESPN, Sports Illustrated and more. He also served on the PRCA Executive Council for multiple years. 

Now Andrews is being inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame alongside Bodacious who was inducted in 1999.

“Rodeo is all we’ve ever done,” said Andrews in an interview with the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. “I started out as a youngster, and this is all I ever wanted to do. The good Lord blessed me and allowed me to keep doing it.”

10. Rodeo Committee: Tri-State Rodeo, Ft. Madison, Iowa

If it’s Labor Day weekend, it’s rodeo week in Ft. Madison, Iowa. The Tri-State Rodeo draws a crowd of thousands from across the Midwest and the country. Since it’s founding in 1984, the rodeo has been bringing top-notch PRCA action to rodeo enthusiasts.

The Tri-State Rodeo came to be when banker and Fort Madison Chamber of Commerce member, C.E. “Eddie” Richards pushed to install a notable event in the town over Labor Day Weekend.

Ft. Madison was a railroad town, and country singer Gene Autry’s livestock would make a stop in the city every year on their way from Texas to the rodeo at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Negotiations to use Autry’s livestock were quick and easy, Autry himself performed at the first rodeo, and its been held over Labor Day every year since. 

The Tri-State Rodeo has been nominated as the PRCA’s Large Outdoor Rodeo of the Year multiple times, and is ranked 43^rd largest PRCA rodeo out of the more than 700 pro-rodeos held every year.

“The volunteers, the sponsors and the community of Fort Madison are a huge asset to our rodeo every single year,” said Chuck Kempker, the President of the Board of Directors at the Tri-State Rodeo. “We wouldn’t have this honor without them.”

11. Ken Stemler Pioneer Award: Bob Feist

Each year, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame awards the Ken Stemler Pioneer Award. Named for the late Ken Stemler, a true visionary responsible for much of the PRCA’s early success, recognizes individuals who have provided groundbreaking, innovative ideas and forward thinking that help the development, advancement and success of the PRCA and or the Hall of Fame and their missions – much like Stemler himself. 

This year, the award honors the Godfather of Team Roping himself, Mr. Bob Feist. 

When it comes to Team Roping, Feist embodies what it means to be innovative and forward thinking. He’s long been a champion of bettering the sport of Team Roping and increasing opportunities for team ropers to compete for larger, lucrative prize money. 

47 years ago, Feist founded the Bob Feist Invitational Team Roping. “The Feist” as the invitational team roping event is fittingly dubbed, is one of the most prestigious events in all of Team Roping. In the years since its inception, the event has grown to a week long compilation of roping tournament. This year, the purse at the Invitational itself is over $625,000 with 125 teams competing. 

After an injury took him out of arena competition, Feist moved to the announcers booth. He announced the 1979 National Finals Steer Roping, the 1980 NFR and has also announced at major events such as the PBR Finals, Reno Rodeo and even the Cowboy Downhill winter sporting event in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

2024 isn’t the first time Feist has been nominated for induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. He was nominated previously in 2013. Now as an inductee and the 2024 Ken Stemler Pioneer Award recipient, “What an honor, my goodness, I will have to get myself together here. This means a lot.”

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.