Livestock • Inducted 2023 Born in 1994 on the 600-acre Zinser ranch in Clare, Michigan, #408 Nightjacket would become a premiere bucking horse in the PRCA. His dam, #108 Nightline, was raised on the same ranch. His sire, #14 Big Timber, was a purchase and came to the ranch without lineage. For...
Saddle Bronc Rider • Inducted 2023 Ranching has been part of the Wright family for over 150 years. As the oldest son of Bill and Evelyn Wright, Cody was taught the importance of hard work and dedication to achieve your goals. He has certainly achieved them. Wright started competing in rodeo after...
Rodeo Committee • Inducted 2023 In 1935, eight local farmers and businessmen conceived the idea for the St. Paul Rodeo. The eight originators were Bill Smith, Ray Manegre, John McKillip, Carl Smith, Jim Gooding, Ralph Butts, Maurice Smith, and Ed Unger. It is safe to say that when the founding directors...
Notable • Inducted 2023 Fay Ann Horton Leach led the Girls Rodeo Association (GRA-now WPRA) as a founding member, competitor, and board member. One of the 38 women who met in San Angelo, Texas, on February 28, 1948, to form the very first professional sports association created solely for women by...
Notable • Inducted 2023 As a young boy, Brian D. (Butch) Knowles spent his summers at his family’s remote Eastern Oregon Drewsey ranch. It was there that the fire was lit and the dream of being a Cowboy began while listening to a live radio broadcast of the Snake River Stampede....
WPRA Barrel Racer • Inducted 2023 Sherry (Combs) Johnson completed the family trifecta in 2023 when she joined the hallowed halls alongside her world champion horse Star Plaudit “Red,” who earned induction in 2017 and her sister Florence Youree, who was inducted as part of the Class of 2019 in the...
Team Roper • Inducted 2023 Doyle Gellerman started roping at age 5 with his father, who was a great team roper in his own right. Gellerman started out heeling, but quickly switched to heading. He admits that he was much better at roping horns. After rodeoing around California, Gellerman joined RCA...
Notable • Inducted 2023 Tom Feller started his rodeo career later in life than most. Growing up in an urban lifestyle, the likelihood of his spending a lifetime in rodeo seemed extremely remote. But, fresh out of high school he tried riding a bull, while that fed the rodeo fever, he...
Rodeo Committee • Inducted 2023 Started in 1929 by Howard Harris Sr. and his son, Howard “Stoney” Harris Jr., the Cowtown Rodeo has been a staple of eastern rodeo. The rodeo was held annually in Woodstown, New Jersey, during the Salem County Fair until 1938. World War II paused the rodeo...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 2023 Kenny Clabaugh has had many names over his nearly forty-year career as a rodeo pick-up man. “The Invisible Man” and “Mr. Smooth” have been two of the most popular. Clabaugh has earned these monikers due to his uncanny ability to be in the right place at...
