JEROME DAVIS Bull Rider Inducted 2026 Jerome Davis knew what he wanted to be from an early age – a professional bull rider. His first bull ride was at 11 and he didn’t look back. Davis competed throughout high school in bull riding and saddle bronc riding, with a little calf roping and...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1997 Richard “Tuff” Hedeman truly lived up to his nickname. Born March 2, 1963, in El Paso, Texas, he rode his first calf at age 4. He roped calves, winning the first roping he entered, rode saddle broncs, and at 13, started riding bulls. He won the...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1996 A 1993 Timex watch advertising campaign featured Charles Sampson as an example of “takes a licking and keeps on ticking.” His 16-year career became as well known for wrecks as championships. Sampson, born July 2, 1957, in Los Angeles, started riding ponies and steers at a...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1992 Johnie Schneider, born in 1904 in Stockton, Calif., had a soul of a poet and the heart of a cowboy. He began rodeoing in 1923 and quickly established a reputation as one of the most versatile performers around. He competed in bull riding, saddle bronc riding,...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1990 Lane Frost was as well-known for his friendly smile and magnetic personality as for his bull riding excellence. Frost credited his father, Clyde, and his friend and mentor, the late Freckles Brown, with teaching him to ride bulls and encouraging him to be a champion. Frost’s...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1989 Dick Griffith began his rodeo career as a trick rider when he was 6 and went on to win four consecutive world bull riding championships. A member of the famous 101 Ranch Rodeo outfit in 1930-31, Griffith attributed his exceptional balance and coordination in bull riding...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1979 In the span of 12 years, Harry Tompkins won five bull riding world titles, as well as one in bareback riding and two in the all around. According to various accounts, Tompkins needed the 12-year span because he hit a dry spell from 1952-60 where world...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1979 Truly one of the all-time greats, Smoky Snyder of Cripple Creek, Colo., won five world bull riding championships and two world bareback titles. Snyder, born June 1, 1908, began his rodeo career at age 15 when he won the bareback riding in Hussar, Alberta. He became...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1979 Ken Roberts, born Jan. 22, 1918, won three consecutive bull riding championships after beginning his rodeo career with the Clyde Miller Wild West Show as a three-event contestant in 1933. His first ProRodeo bull riding victory in Chicago in 1936 encouraged him to enter the professional...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1979 Considered the strongest man ever to ride bulls in professional rodeo, George Paul once made qualified rides on 79 bulls in a row. In 1968 he won the world bull riding championship. Born March 5, 1947, in Del Rio, Texas, and the heir to a million-acre...
