News & Notes From the Rodeo Trail, June 9
by ProRodeo.com | Jun 09, 2014
Heavy rain combined with melting snow runoff caused the Cache La Poudre River to overflow its banks and flood large sections of Larimer and Weld counties June 3, including the Greeley (Colo.) Stampede rodeo grounds, just 23 days before the first day of slack. “It could have been a lot worse,” rodeo chairman James Herman said. “We had a couple of inches of water behind the north grandstands and the paved parking lots were flooded, but there was little impact on the arena or the horse stalls. We put down sandbags around electrical equipment as a precaution and we are back to normal. The City of Greeley did a heck of a job pumping the water out of the area.” …
The Wrangler Network is gearing up for the summer season with a full schedule of live streaming webcasts of PRCA rodeos in the United States and Canada, starting at 6:30 p.m. (MT) June 22 with the Wainwright (Alberta) Stampede. Live coverage on www.WranglerNetwork.com will also be offered from the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo (June 28), the Ponoka (Alberta) Stampede (July 1), the Cody (Wyo.) Stampede (July 4), California Rodeo Salinas (July 19), the Dodge City (Kan.) Roundup Rodeo (Aug. 3), the Strathmore (Alberta) Stampede (Aug. 4), the Lea County Fair & Rodeo in Lovington, N.M. (Aug. 9), the Caldwell (Idaho) Night Rodeo (Aug. 16), the Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo (Sept. 1), the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up (Sept. 13) and the NILE ProRodeo, in Billings, Mont. (Oct. 18). All of these rodeos will be archived on the Wrangler Network website and can be viewed at any time …
Two-time Wrangler NFR team roping heeler Richard Durham is sidelined until at least June 27 after losing the top of his left thumb in a roping accident. Durham and partner Tyler Waters had won the Glen Rose (Texas) PRCA Rodeo and the Oakdale (Calif.) Saddle Club Rodeo this spring as Durham made a run at returning to the WNFR for the first time since 2009; he was ninth in the Windham Weaponry High Performance PRCA World Standings at the time of his injury. When he returns, Durham will rope with Lane Ivy, while Waters will rope with Cody Doescher this summer …
Nineteen-time World Champion Trevor Brazile is a finalist for the Texas Sports Hall of Fame 2015 induction class, the only rodeo cowboy on a primary ballot list of 20 that includes NFL single-season sacks record holder Michael Strahan, Team USA soccer captain Clint Dempsey, Olympic gymnastics champion Natasha Liukin, former Dallas Cowboys defensive back Everson Walls and 1990 Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer. Voting will take place over the summer by members of the Texas media, former inductees and voting members of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. Generally the top six vote getters from the primary ballot are inducted along with the top two from the veterans section. Results will be announced in September …
Bull rider Larry Condon, who qualified for the 1962 National Finals Rodeo in Los Angeles and finished ninth in the world, died June 4 when his car collided with a tractor-trailer on state Highway 155 near the Colville Indian Agency campus in Nespelem, Wash. He was 81. The Omak, Wash., native won the Calgary Stampede bull riding championship in 1967 …
Rusty Wright kept himself busy over the weekend. In addition to increasing his lead in the PRCA Resistol Rookie Saddle Bronc Riding standings with a win in Glennville, Calif., and a fifth-place result in Herriman, Utah, he also won the Utah High School Rodeo Association Finals Rodeo in Heber City. He edged his brother, Ryder – their dad is two-time World Champion Cody Wright – for the high school buckle and is now in position to challenge for his third consecutive National High School Finals Rodeo title next month in Wyoming …
The Wright family, including Cody, Rusty and Ryder, will light the cauldron during the opening ceremonies of the Utah Summer Games on June 11 in Cedar City, Utah. The event is in its 29th year and includes everything from running to equestrian events to trapshooting …
Two-time World Champion Team Roping Header Clay Tryan will be honored tonight at a reception organized by the Yellowstone River Roundup Cowboy Club at MetraPark in his hometown of Billings, Mont. “We know what kind of impact Clay has had on team roping and rodeo in general, and we are really excited to celebrate his success,” Todd Buchanan of the Cowboy Club told the Billings Gazette …
Former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jay Novacek, a five-time selection for the Pro Bowl, will deliver the address at the June 26 Heart O’ Texas Fair & Rodeo’s scholarship recognition banquet in Waco. The Heart O’ Texas will distribute more than $49,000 in scholarships to area youth this year …
The late Stanley Foster, the man credited with bringing rodeo back to Pontotoc County, was honored with a memorial presentation in the arena at the June 6-7 Ken Lance Memorial in Ada, Okla. Foster died last December at age 74 …
The Sisters (Ore.) Rodeo is honoring the late John Hammack by making its bareback riding buckle a permanent memorial in his name. Hammack, who won the all-around title at Sisters four times (1974, 1977, 1980 and 1984) and several bareback riding titles there, died last August while fighting a fire west of town. Hammack worked as a logger when not on the rodeo road competing as a bareback rider and steer wrestler; when he retired from competition he served as the chute boss at the Sisters Rodeo. His son, Johnny, is a saddle bronc rider, who has won a buckle in Sisters and his daughter, Kelli Jo, is a barrel racer …
For its 74th annual edition this week, the Sisters (Ore.) Rodeo has gone to a system of free shuttle buses to ease traffic to the grounds. Sisters’ “Biggest Little Show on Earth,” now brings approximately 26,000 people into the Central Oregon community (population 2,112) …
The Ponoka (Alberta) Stampede committee has called a press conference for June 23 at the Wolf Creek Golf Resort to announce their plans for the June 25 through July 1 event, including a rise in committee purse from $45,000 to $50,000 per event …
As part of the June 13-14 Sturgis (S.D.) Wild West Days Rodeo, the organizers are honoring local Korean War veterans Ted Sigman and Walt Simons in the arena …
Eight-time World Champion Team Roping Header Speed Williams spent two weeks in Brazil last month to do some clinics. “In the next five years, be looking for Brazilian ropers to come over and be entered at the WNFR,” Williams said in The Wrangler. “There are some guys there who can really rope.” …
Rodeo Property Inc. and Rodeo de Santa Fe (N.M.) will be holding a series of community meetings to seek input as they enter the final design stage of their indoor arena project …
New chutes and a crow’s nest have been added to the Roundup Grounds in Belle Fourche, S.D., in time for the annual Fourth of July Black Hills Roundup …
The Jail or Bail event to benefit the Prescott, Ariz., Meals on Wheels program last week raised nearly $4,000 to help feed vulnerable seniors and the disabled. J.C. Trujillo, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame bareback rider and World’s Oldest Rodeo general manager, was among those “arrested” for the cause by the Arizona Rangers …
Jim Fain, the 2006 winner of the PRCA Excellence in Rodeo Photography award, and his wife, Karen, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on June 12 in Logan, Utah …
PRCA Gold Card Member Ralph Lamb, whose life as “The Cowboy Sheriff” was portrayed on the short-lived CBS television series Vegas last year (Dennis Quaid playing Lamb), is now the subject of an exhibit at the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, aka the Mob Museum. Lamb, 87, contributed his saddle and spurs as part of the display; he was a team roper and tie-down roper in his competition days …
Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Neb., has been promoted from club status to that of a full-fledged college athletic program by vote of the MPCC Board of Directors.
Courtesy of PRCA