Barrel Racing • Class of 2020 Martha Josey qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 11 times on six different horses across four consecutive decades. She won the WPRA barrel racing world title in 1980 on Sonny Bit O’ Both, the same year the duo also won the AQHA World Championship, a...
Livestock • Inducted 2019 Commotion, a 1,300 pound bay stallion, was voted top bareback horse of the National Finals Rodeo at his first trip to the event in 1997. He would return nine more times to the NFR and claim three Bareback Horse of the Year (1998-2000) titles along the way. Commotion...
Notable • Inducted 2019 Florence (Price) Youree joined the Girls Rodeo Association (GRA) now the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) in 1951 and she hit the ground running both inside and outside the arena. On the competitive side, Youree was among the top 15 a total of six times and won the...
Barrel Racing • Inducted 2019 From chasing mustangs on the deserts of Arizona and Nevada, to a WPRA Barrel Racing World Championship, to roping and falling off horses in the movies Sammy Thurman Brackenbury did it all. Brackenbury qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 11 consecutive times, winning the world title in...
Notable • Inducted 2019 A three-year-old Jerome Robinson announced that he intended to become a bull rider while attending the National Western Stock Show with his grandmother. At age fifteen, after years of family discouragement, the trophy for winning a horse race with his father was permission to pursue a rodeo...
Bareback Riding • Inducted 2019 In 1980, Larry Peabody was about to retire from professional rodeo after two rough seasons when a $1,000 refund check from the IRS arrived in the mail. He decided to rodeo until the funds ran out. Shortly after receiving the check, Peabody won the Pikes Peak...
Barrel Racing • Inducted 2019 While Jimmie (Gibbs) Munroe initially made a name for herself in the rodeo arena by winning a WPRA world title in 1975, her commitment to the advancement of women in professional rodeo has cemented her legacy in the sport. Munroe, a Texas native and granddaughter of...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 2019 Tommy Lucia’s rodeo career started at the age of 15 riding bareback horses and bulls. When a friend was injured, he filled in as the clown and bull fighter. At 20, he made the switch to fulltime bull fighting. At the urging of George Doak, Lucia...
Steer Wrestling • Inducted 2019 Dean Gorsuch eased into professional rodeo. The Nebraskan spent five years as a pipeline welder for Kinder Morgan and a weekend circuit contender before jumping into fulltime rodeo in 2005. That year, he finished sixth in the world. By the end of 2006, Gorsuch had a...
Cody, Wyoming • Inducted 2019 Cody, Wyoming, is often called the “Rodeo Capitol of the World.” The Cody Stampede Rodeo has attracted countless tourists to the small-town east of Yellowstone National Park entrance since 1919. With a population of only 10,000, Cody draws 800-900 contestants per year with a payout of over...
