Team Roping • Inducted 1979 Jim Rodriguez grew up in a roping arena owned by his father, applied his early training and individual skills to team roping and won four world championships. Rodriguez, born Sept. 9, 1941, in Watsonville, Calif., was the youngest man to win a team roping title, taking...
Steer Wrestling • Inducted 1979 Jack Roddy, born Oct. 3, 1937, in San Francisco, competed in his first RCA rodeo at the age of 14 and won $90 in the wild horse race. Early participation in rodeo was not unusual for the youngster who grew up on the family ranch near...
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...
Saddle Bronc Riding • Inducted 1979 Saddle bronc rider Gene Pruett could ride any horse he was dealt, good or bad. Born Feb. 1, 1917, in Moscow, Idaho, to a pioneer family, he entered his first rodeo at age 17. In 1948, he won his first world title. In 1955, he...
Steer Wrestling • Inducted 1979 Homer Pettigrew holds the steer wrestling record for both total and consecutive world titles at six and four, respectively. He won his six within eight years, and in 1947 and 1949-50, he was second in the world, which made him the dominant steer wrestler for a...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 1979 His peers, professional rodeo cowboys and audiences across North America considered Wick Peth to be the greatest rodeo bullfighter of all. Making no attempt to be funny, his costume was more functional than clownish. Born on April 15, 1930, in Mount Vernon, Wash., Peth was a...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 1977 was the first year that a trophy was awarded to the season’s best steer wrestling horse by vote of the top 30 money winners in the event. Their choice in 1977-78 was a bay gelding named Peanuts, owned by C.R. Jones of Lakeside, Calif. Purchased off...
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...
Tie-Down Roping • Inducted 1979 Between 1956 and 1969, Dean Oliver won eight world tie-down roping championships, dominating professional tie-down roping as no other man before or since. He also won three straight world all-around championships. Oliver, born Nov. 17, 1929, in Dodge City, Kan., was a man before he had...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 1979 George Mills is credited with being one of the first bullfighter/clowns to hurdle a bull in the arena. Mills approached the bull from an angle while running full speed. When he got the bull’s attention, the animal lowered its head to hook him, and Mills became...
