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Lynn Smith Named Full-Time Pro Official

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has named Lynn Smith as a full-time Pro Official.

Smith began his new position March 1.

“This is a time in my life where this works for me now,” Smith said. “I have always liked judging and I’m glad to try it this way (full-time). I’m very excited. I think with (PRCA CEO) Tom (Glause), Steve (Knowles, PRCA’s Director of Rodeo Administration) and Rick (Smith, Supervisor of Pro Officials) and some of my fellow judges talking to me they convinced me this is what I needed to do, so I did it.”

Smith has been judging PRCA rodeos since 1995 and is a lifelong resident of Idaho Falls, Idaho. He has been a judge at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo several times, the last being in 2019 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

“Lynn brings a wealth of experience to this job and will be a good fit for this position,” Glause said.

Smith competed in bareback riding, bull riding, steer wrestling and team roping growing up. He competed solely in bareback riding in the PRCA, mainly in the Wilderness Circuit in mid-1980s.

“I got involved with judging because I wanted to see the right people win the money and the fairness of it,” Smith said. “I never really set out to be a judge, but I had an uncle (Royce Smith), who was a full-time official when they first started the program and that’s when I became interested in it.”

Royce Smith was an 11-time qualifier for the NFR in bareback riding from 1967-76 and 1978 and Lynn’s father, Jay T. Smith was a bareback rider at the 1960 NFR.

“Rodeoing has always been a part of our family,” Lynn said. “I rodeoed, my brothers and sisters rodeoed, and my kids rodeoed. I have a love for the sport.”

Smith and his wife, Sophia have three grown children – two daughters, Lynnzie and Kelsay, and son, Casey and two grandchildren.

Courtesy of PRCA

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