While rodeos as competition are far older than the modern “circuit” we know now, with clowns and prizes and televised events, the “Super Bowl” of rodeos had its inception in the founding, in 1936, of the Rodeo Cowboys Association. This group, now known as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, organizes the National Finals Rodeo, held the first week of December every year. At this event, one lucky wrangler will be awarded the coveted golden buckle.

Professional rodeo cowboys keep alive the traditional working skills of the eighteenth and nineteenth century wranglers, who lived by their abilities to ride, rope, and herd. The old-time cowboys’ hard life on the cattle trails evolved into the legend of the American cowboy, whose deeds and courage were respected throughout the country.

Survival in the old West depended on a man’s ability to live in the saddle and be able to rope anything that moved. It was natural that at the end of a work day or cattle drive, cowboys would vie with one another to see who could stay on a wild horse the longest or rope the fastest calf. Not just competition but the romance of the frontier was spread by early Wild West shows, such as those produced by the iconic Buffalo Bill. He brought the skills, stamina and athletic abilities of the working cowboy to the tenderfeet who idolized such colorful characters. Friendly competition among working cowboys gradually evolved into professional events on a regular rodeo “circuit,” and the cowboys who travel the circuit in the quest for the golden buckle are as much a part of the romance of the West as the traditional cowboy in their contests with bucking horses and wild bulls.

Over the past hundred years, as contests became more formalized and less casual, cowboys began to regard their competitions with a more professional eye. Even if it didn’t take place on the range, it was a tough life, with injury lurking at every event, and in 1936 the cowboys organized to professionalize the sport. In its first incarnation, their group was known as the Cowboys’ Turtle Association (CTA), because while they might have been turtle-slow to organize, they were willing to stick their necks out for what they felt was their due.  In 1945, the CTA was renamed the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA), and rodeo as a sport took off.  By 1952, there were more than 500 RCA-sanctioned rodeos each year.  In 1975, the name of the organization was changed once more, this time to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), a name that more accurately reflected what the group had become: the biggest and most respected sanctioning body in the history of rodeo.

Today more than 9,000 cowboy members call the PRCA “home,” and the group now sanctions more than 650 rodeos yearly. Audiences now top 23 million eager fans, and television viewership accounts for more than 40 million people who thrill to the televised Wrangler Pro Rodeo Tour series every year. The total prize money in this series exceeds $34 million annually, and the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada, has morphed into an event known as the “Super Bowl” or “World Series” of rodeo, worth more than $5 million. Every December cowboys gather from all over to tough it out for the world championships in each of the rodeo events. The cowboy chosen for the golden buckle is known as the All-Around Cowboy, whose skills in all categories are good enough to beat out all the other participants.

PHOTO CAPTION: Alan Wood on the great bucking mare Curio in 1953.

GOLDEN AGE HISTORY INSPIRED BY: HOSS TAMER by L. Ron Hubbard. Tim Farland, an ex-circus horse trainer, has had some bad breaks, but his prospects may improve spectacularly if he can foil the Gopher Hole Gang’s audaciously reckless attempt to rob the Wells Fargo train. A short story included with the tale UNDER THE DIEHARD BRAND.  (read more…)

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