The son of a working cowboy and ranch foreman, Leo Camarillo knew what discipline and hard work were all about when he embarked on his professional rodeo career. His upbringing helped him win four world team roping titles and a world all-around championship in the 1970s and 1980s. An intense competitor, he created and perfected a polished style of heeling steers (catching both back legs). An excellent horseman, Camarillo, born Jan. 25, 1946, in Santa Ana, Calif., roped off his horse named Super Stick, which many pros thought unsuitable for professional competition. Camarillo was also an excellent tie-down roper and steer wrestler. In his first 11 years in ProRodeo, Camarillo won $180,466 in team roping.
World Championships: 5 (Team roping, 1972-73, 1975, 1983; all-around, 1975) PRCA Season Championship: 1976
PAUL CARNEY All-Around • Inducted 2001
Paul Carney grew up working with stock and took great pride in breaking horses. His interest in school was mostly confined to sports and he was known to skip school to attend a rodeo or stock show. Every year he attended Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days, and at age 17 placed second in the bronc riding there. Carney rode everything that bucked — bareback horses, saddle broncs and bulls — and was a winning steer wrestler. In 1936 Carney won the Madison Square Garden bull riding title. The following year he took the Garden’s trophies in bull riding and saddle bronc riding, with second place in bareback riding. That same year he earned his first world bareback riding championship. His world all-around title followed in 1939. Carney, born Sept. 21, 1912, in Galeton, Colo., was a natural leader, popular with his peers and with sponsors. He died June 24, 1950.
World Championships: 3 (All around, 1939; bareback riding, 1937, 1939)
CLAY CARR All-Around • Inducted 1979
Clay Carr won five world titles while competing in roughstock and timed events. His versatility came from working on the family-owned Gill Ranches in California. A cowboy born to the saddle and rope, Carr was a natural athlete who competed in saddle bronc riding, steer roping, steer wrestling, team roping and tie-down roping during an illustrious career that spanned 25 years. Carr, born April 17, 1909, in Farmersville, Calif., traveled widely during his rodeo career, competing in Australia and England, as well as throughout North America. Upon his death in Visalia, Calif., in April 1957, the citizens of his hometown voted him the all-time greatest athlete of that area.
Mike Cervi, the largest rodeo producer in the country, was always a deal-maker and entrepreneur. As an elementary schoolboy, he sold flavored toothpicks and Christmas trees, hauled ashes and rode racehorses. Born Sept. 9, 1936, in Denver, Cervi became fascinated by rodeo clowns and, by 14, had a trained mule act at Little Britches and junior rodeos. In 1958 the Cervi family acquired the family ranch near Sterling, Colo., and Cervi became foreman. By 1964, he was buying cattle, including a herd from Oregon, which was reported to be the biggest livestock sale ever in Colorado. He was also producing rodeos. In 1957 he purchased the Beutler Brothers Rodeo Company, now known as Beutler Brothers and Cervi Rodeo Company, and in 1974 bought the Billy Minick Rodeo Company, now known as Cervi Championship Rodeo Company. For the past three decades, Cervi, two-time PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year (1983, 2001), has produced many of the country’s biggest rodeos, including RodeoHouston, the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver and the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. Cervi annually takes many of his animals to the Wrangler NFR.
CHRISTENSEN BROTHERS Henry & Robert Sr. Stock Contractor • Inducted 1989
Henry and Robert Christensen, with their sister, Babe, began staging backyard Sunday rodeos in the 1930s. Their bucking broncs were horses that had worked all week and their Brahmas were cows. They charged a dime for admission. Henry was born Oct. 15, 1911, in Lake Creek, Ore., and Robert was born June 18, 1913, in Eugene, Ore. In 1936 Christensen Brothers contracted for their first “paying” rodeo, driving the stock 60 miles by horseback. Christensen Brothers Rodeo and Stock Company grew to 15,000 acres and became known as a company that helped develop the sport as we know it today. Over the years, the CB string produced broncs of the year, War Paint and Checkmate; bareback horses, Smith and Velvet; and bull, Oscar’s Velvet (son of Hall of Famer Oscar). For more than 50 years, Christensen Brothers trucks and trailers kept in tact the dirt arenas of the Pacific Northwest and Western circuit. Henry died April 10, 1986.
GENE & BOBBY CLARK Contract Personnel • Inducted 1997
The Clarks began their rodeo career as competitors — both as tie-down ropers, and Gene in steer wrestling and Bobby in bareback riding. Gene, born March 27, 1926, in Seminole, Okla., quickly moved to the contract side of the sport as a bullfighter, complete with Spanish-style cape. Bobby, born March 24, 1930, in Seminole, Okla., joined the act shortly after high school, clowning and working the barrel and bullfighting. Gene and Bobby worked for all the top contractors and at all the big rodeos for more than 30 years. The Clarks were familiar sights at Madison Square Garden, Boston Garden, Houston, Ft. Worth, Texas, and Pendleton, Ore. They also performed at the Calgary Stampede, as well as in Mexico and Havana, Cuba. The Clarks’ creative acts were new, innovative and thrilled audiences. Fan favorites included the disappearing act, Cannon Capers; the hearse act; the magical box; and Lord Beaverbrook’s Roman Riding Mules.
