Read an Excerpt
The Young and The Rodeo
A tale of how young people keep alive the sport of rodeo in the region called the ArkLaMiss
By Robert Jackson
AuthorHouse
Copyright © 2012 Robert Jackson
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-6906-0
Chapter One
America's Sporting Soul
Having written a lot about sports, and watched it as a fan across our nation; I have often asked myself, "What is the most American of sports?"
Some sporting events advertise themselves by claiming to be the nation's pastime or as American as hot dogs and apple pie on the Fourth of July; however, I have my own opinion developed apart from the efforts of public relations professionals.
Those who are involved in football as promoters, owners, and major college presidents point to TV ratings as evidence that football is America's sport. Those in love with baseball use tales of history and romance to claim that their sport is the true American sport.
Those who follow the wide variety of motor sports offered in our nation are among the most fanatical of fans in the United States. If you question that assumption, simply look at how far those fans drive in order to attend a NASCAR, Indy Car or NHRA competition despite record-high gas prices and travel costs.
What is the most American of sports? In my way of thinking and looking at life, there is a tie between basketball and rodeo.
Baseball was born on the cricket fields of merry old England. Football is rugby with helmets, an odd rule about kicking the ball and a few extra moving parts.
As for motor sports, I believe it is simply crazy to do what race drivers do—reach unsafe speeds and put their lives in danger while constantly making left-hand turns. Additionally, it seems strange to me to have corporate sponsors pay millions of dollars to place colorful billboards on cars that fly around in circles at such a high rate of speed that the human eye is unable to see anything other than a colorful blur on the side of a racing machine.
Golf is not America's game. It is Scottish and the longest running act in the sport is the British Open. Although I have a special fondness for tennis, I just cannot see Americans really embracing a sport that does not count points 1,2,3,4. Why is the first point in a set listed as 15 and zero points is love? It is illogical, to quote the eminent Star Trek philosopher Spock, to equate zero with love.
That leaves me with basketball and rodeo. For me, those two sports are as American as apple pie, maybe more American than even that dessert. Perhaps, the best description would be as American as the Red, White and Blue flag we call the Stars and Stripes.
Basketball was invented by an American; rodeo celebrates American history and culture.
Basketball is an urban sport. Yes, it is loved and special to the people of Kentucky and Indiana; but, basketball is urban by its very nature. If you want to explain to friends from upstate North Dakota what urban life in America is like, just take them to a basketball game. Basketball is the classic melting pot with people of all cultures, races, ethnic backgrounds and levels of talent coming together with one goal in mind. A basketball player is not a specialist, but must have special skills. It is the only major sport that spans from the Atlantic to the Pacific with both men and women earning professional salaries while playing in professional leagues. What other sport pays as much for assists as for points and dunks?
The cultural counterpoint to basketball is rodeo.
Rodeo (and its components) is American roots music by its very nature. While rodeo has its national championship in Las Vegas and draws huge crowds in Dallas and Houston, it is the sport best suited to rural America. I direct you to the Cheyenne Frontier Days celebrated in Wyoming or a weekend afternoon in small, rural towns like Magnolia, Arkansas.
Since this book is about rodeo, I will let my fondness for a sport (basketball) that I played (in gyms, back yards and playgrounds) while I was growing up—and continue to adore—slide back into another part of my spirit and soul. For now, I will move on to a sport that I have grown to admire. Rodeo dates back to the nation's classical heritage of the 19th Century. We romanticize about the wild, wild west. But, as in all great romantic tales there has to be some truth to the dream.
Rodeo is the sport of dreams. While it does require a level of toughness, it is the kind of toughness that is associated with our nation's pioneers. Winners are judged by a clock, not by outsiders with whistles or striped shirts. Rodeo takes our dreams and brings them into modern reality while remaining true to the past.
Rodeo brings everyone back to the romantic past. Fans, rodeo producers, those who operate stock companies, rodeo officials, volunteers and those who compete in the sport are not wowed by an amazing athletic move. Instead, a rodeo competitor and ambassador for the sport once told me that rodeo competitors focus on reaching their individual goals and finishing up with their best run, ride or roping time. Winning is important, but doing one's best is what rodeo is ultimately about. Completing the ride, the task at hand, is the key to success in rodeo. In rodeo, riders do not depend upon agents and general managers, they win or lose on their own.
I have seen a barrel racer storm off on her horse away from the arena after a disappointing ride, only to come back and cry and scream in delight when a friend edges her out for a prize at the end of the same rodeo competition basically saying "I did my best; but, if you top me, then my hat is off to you."
Rodeo is a shared love and experience. It represents our past, those farmers that settled our heartland and then joined as one to form a grange. Rodeo pays homage to our country's heritage. It is how we pay respect to those men and women who went west.
Cowboys were and are of every ethnic background. Take a look at our nation's heritage and you will find that the men who we call cowboys and rode the range were black, white and Hispanic. The women who went with them and helped to open the West were also of many colors and ethnic backgrounds.
Similarly, the Midwestern farmers that turned prairies into waving wheat fields or the South into an agricultural legend were Americans of all backgrounds, heritages and nationalities. That tradition continues with today's rodeo heroes and heroines.
Rodeo is a sport that can be conquered by anyone. It is the ultimate sport of rugged individualism. It is a sport in which a person's heart and determination can overcome another person's physical strength or size.
That brings me to this book.
Growing up in New Orleans when I did, I saw what happened to a culture that nearly lost its identity—Louisiana's French Cajuns.
Efforts to replace their culture with the bland Anglo-Saxon world of Madison Avenue—the better to sell TV advertising—made speaking French a social faux pas. Fortunately, before it vanished, local efforts in schools and community centers were made to recapture the glory, the language and the rich heritage of Acadiana. As a result, you can still listen to recordings and hear the sounds of those men and women who grew up and continue to give us a rich cultural stew, a gumbo of sights, sounds, traditions and life lessons.
In this book, I am writing about the young people who, with their parent's permission, are keeping the flame of our nation's western heritage alive—fighting against video games and the world of corporatized sports. By virtue of what they are doing now, the young boys and girls who turn rodeo from a noun into a verb—from a state of mind into a state of action—are to be thanked because they are keeping America's history alive. While that history is romantic and often fantasized, it is rooted in facts and truth. And it is the dream of every American to live that truth.
What young boy would not want to be a cowboy riding that bull or bucking bronco in record-breaking fashion? What American girl would not want to be the Rodeo queen or a ballerina guiding a horse like a dancing partner around a cloverleaf pattern of barrels? To generations of Americans our film heroes have been John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gary Cooper and Clint Eastwood—mostly because of the western films they made.
Watch the athletic talent of a rider and horse completing a slalom course composed of poles in a matter of seconds and you will get a new appreciation for the magic of a rider on a horse. The magical weaving of horse and rider around and through the poles can get to be hypnotic if not otherworldly.
Then there are the hushed tones of an anxious crowd as they see a young man mounting a bull and hanging on until the horn sounds.
And if you think the sport is sexist, just watch as boys compete against and sometimes alongside girls in roping events—even in some barrel racing competitions they go head to head. In rodeo, there is no fairer sex or special rules for girls. If you ever wondered how tough the sport is for a girl racing around barrels or poles, just ask them. Better yet, just go out and watch them compete.
Rodeo is a sport that brings out the best in all that participate; and the young people that keep rodeo alive are special. The magic that is the tale of the American cowboy and cowgirl is still alive today in America's rodeo.
It is true in Wyoming, Colorado and Texas where rodeo is king, and it is true in the tri-state region of the Ark-La-Miss.
When one says Louisiana, you might think of gumbo, crawfish etouffee, fishing, jazz and football. Mississippi conjures up Faulkner, the Rebels of Ole Miss, the noise of cowbells on a fall Saturday night in Starkville and the beautiful sound of the blues from artists like B.B. King and the legendary Muddy Waters. Arkansas brings to mind row crops, sharecropping, cotton, pigs and a unique political legacy. Arkansas is the state of President Bill Clinton and Gov. Mike Huckabee (a minister turned politician and now a TV broadcaster). When you figure that out please come and tell me.
All three states are also rodeo states. You can find rodeo competitions in Lake Charles, Deridder and Monroe, Louisiana; Crossett, Fort Smith and Hot Springs, Arkansas; Jackson, Hattiesburg and Poplaville—and yes, even Wiggins, Mississippi.
I should know. I worked for a newspaper in Wiggins, and covered rodeos in that small, south Mississippi community. Wiggins may be better known as the gateway to Gulfport on Highway 49 or the former home to Dizzy Dean or for its gone but not forgotten pickle factory; but, it is also a true rodeo community. I soon learned what rodeo means to people, even in southern Mississippi—as far away from the wild, wild west of Wyoming as one can get. The dusty open-air Wiggins Fairgrounds Arena is the place to be on weekends when young and old bring their horses to ride or take up the challenge of riding bulls.
This book is about the young men and women who keep America's sport alive and flourishing in the tri-state area and in small towns like Wiggins. It is a salute to a true American sport. It is about the young and the rodeo.
In today's world, customer service and person-to-person relations have slowly eroded away. Computers, technology and cost cutting has made today's world a more modern, but less personal society. Coldness has replaced the warmth of doing things face-to-face.
Trying to solve a billing problem or getting documents from the government takes hours. Red tape, a onetime headache, would be welcome in a world that is now filled with automated voices, hitting buttons on a mini-phone and the inability to get simple problems solved simply.
Rodeo brings us back to a simpler era. Rodeo is by people, for people, and about people. If I wanted to find out where and when a high school rodeo competition is going to be held I just ask someone in the know and the answer is given quickly without having to wait on the phone and patiently punch buttons.
Go to a rodeo and you will find the friendliest fans around.
Try going to a professional sporting event and finding smiling faces. At big time NCAA and professional sporting events, concerts and plays I walk straight to my chair, sit and watch. I also spend a fortune on tickets, parking and concessions.
The world of rodeo is nothing like that, because attending a rodeo, barrel run or bull riding exhibition is like going to a family reunion, only better. While you might know just a few dozen people—if you're lucky—at your next family reunion, at a rodeo everyone—hundreds or thousands depending upon the size of the event—is your friend, brother, sister, mother, uncle and grandparent. Attending a rodeo is fun. It is full of smiles and everyone has a great time. And I mean everyone, from attendees to workers to competitors.
One of those smiling people is Anna Bradshaw. Anna Bradshaw is a special person. A high school student, she is not only on the honor roll but received her school's Principal Award for her volunteer work and willingness to assist disabled students. An officer with the FFA and a highly decorated competitor in rodeo, Bradshaw is the person I go to when I have questions about the world of youth rodeo. She is a championship competitor with numerous awards in the form of saddles and buckles; and an example of what is special about rodeo.
"Rodeo is not only a sport, it is a lifestyle," she told me. "The people that compete in rodeos together become a family and support each other. We all cheer each other on and help each other with any situation."
That was not all.
"The relationships you have with your rodeo family and the ability to compete with, the animals you love, make rodeo so special,"—Anna Bradshaw.
Try going to a rodeo and leaving angry, I dare you. Try making a rodeo experience unpleasant. Try leaving the rodeo arena with a frown. You cannot.
I have tried. I cannot. And being a very moody person that is quick to anger, I have decided that the solution to any problem I may develop is rodeo.
Now back to Miss Bradshaw. I first thought Anna Bradshaw was a little unique. She was always smiling, always happy. Then I thought she had to be a saint, St. Anna Bradshaw. No, she was and is rodeo. Most people in the public eye are wary of reporters. Not Anna.
When I first met Anna I said to myself, "She is not a rodeo rider." She looked as if she were the homecoming queen, the prom queen or head cheerleader. She talked as if she were the school president. However, she is simply just one of many great rodeo ambassadors. I should know because you will find them at every high school and youth competition across Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Always smiling with a cowboy hat atop her flaming red hair and sparkling blue eyes, Anna Bradshaw turns into a fierce competitor when she enters the arena on one of her horses. Suddenly, her smile turns into the determined face of an NFL middle linebacker. She is ready to drive her horse around the barrels in record time. From the small town of Crossett, Arkansas, Bradshaw has gone on to compete and compete successfully at the International Finals Youth Rodeo in Oklahoma.
When I asked her if she was going to the prom, she looked at me as if I should have known better. "No," she said. Why? There was a rodeo going on that weekend. Riding in rodeos is who Anna Bradshaw is and always will be.
Chase Outlaw is the perfect name for a cowboy. He hails from the small Arkansas town of Hamburg in Ashley County. He grew up riding calves and then bulls after starting it all as a mutton busting king. He was younger than five-years-old and the owner of a big dream when he entered his first rodeo. Outlaw grew into bull riding and became a state high school champion in the sport.
At the still very young age of 19, the 5' 5" bull rider with a giant heart joined the professional bull riding circuit. In just his third event in the major leagues of bull riding, he took home top honors at a competition in Houston. He went from there to San Antonio. His goal now is to reach Las Vegas and the National Finals Rodeo. It is not a stretch to predict the teen making it to the Super Bowl of rodeo this season or next, and in the coming years becoming a leading name in the sport. He told me that he is now riding against the people that he admired and idolized just a few years ago. I believe today's young riders will soon have Chase Outlaw posters on their walls.
And just imagine, at only 5' 5" Outlaw has shown that size matters little. It simply takes a big heart to tame a bull, and a bit of courage.
Hamburg is a very small town, smaller than Crossett. Yet, it has put its name on the map because of Outlaw. Still, Outlaw is not the only famous son of Hamburg or Crossett or Ashley County or any other small town in America to make it big in rodeo or as an event specialist. A review of the biographies of today's rodeo professionals will uncover men and women from the hundreds of small towns that dot America—towns that are not reachable by the nation's mega-highways. That is why I am writing this book. This book honors the young people from the rural stretches of Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi who continue to make rodeo a family sport. It honors the young people who turn rodeo into a dream. Youth rodeo is also a unique love affair because it often brings together young people with the horses they raise and ride.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Young and The Rodeo by Robert Jackson Copyright © 2012 by Robert Jackson. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
