Mark Schricker, Aug. 27, 1938 – Oct. 20, 2014

by ProRodeo.com | Oct 21, 2014

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Mark Schricker, a 14-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo and co-founder of the Fellowship of Christian Cowboys, died Oct. 20 in a Colorado Springs, Colo., hospice from the effects of Parkinson’s disease. He was 76.

Schricker was one of the most consistent and accomplished timed-event cowboys of the 1960s, seven times finishing among the top 10 in the all-around world standings, including second-place results in 1965 and 1967.

He qualified for the NFR seven times as a steer wrestler (1962, 1964-65, 1967-70) – finishing as reserve world champion in 1965 – and seven times as a tie-down roper (1963-67, 1969-70).

“Rodeo was my God, that was all I cared about,” Schricker said in a 2004 interview with the News-Review in Roseburg, Ore. “I was pretty obsessed with winning. I had a really good career. I just wish I would have won a world championship.”

He came closest in that 1965 season when he finished $2,467 behind Dean Oliver in the all-around standings and $1,796 behind Harley May in the bulldogging. Both Oliver and May are inductees in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

For all of his many contributions to the sport, Schricker felt his greatest impact came from co-founding the Fellowship of Christian Cowboys with Wilbur Plaugher in 1974.

“I think it helped the image of rodeo,” Schricker said. “We had church services at most of the major rodeos and that was unheard of back in those days.”

Funeral arrangements are pending through the Harwood Funeral Home in Florence, Colo. (www.harwoodfunerals.com) and will be posted on www.prorodeo.com when they become available.

Courtesy of PRCA