Stock Contractor • Inducted 2000 Joe Kelsey was riding bucking horses before he was old enough to compete, making his first trip to the pay window at 14. Kelsey went on to ride bucking horses competitively through the 1930s and 1940s, winning or placing at all the major rodeos in the...
Rodeo Notable • Inducted 2000 Cecil Jones, born July 2, 1917, in Menan, Idaho, began his rodeo career at 17, making a dollar a ride instead of picking potatoes. In 1938, he met Harry Rowell, marking the beginning of a lifetime relationship between the two and Jones’ lifetime commitment to rodeo,...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 2000 *Inducted as a pair with Junior Meek. George Doak and Junior Meek were destined to be together. Both started their bullfighting careers as a means of trading entry fees for the bull riding, although Doak also entered bareback riding while Meek chose steer wrestling and tie-down roping....
Livestock • Inducted 1999 Perhaps no bucking bull in ProRodeo history was as feared as Bodacious, a 1,900-pound cross-bred charbray that burst upon the scene in 1992. In four years, Bodacious was virtually unrideable. All muscle, the bull with the distinctive yellow coloring bucked off 127 of his 135 riders and...
Lifetime Achievement • Inducted 1999 Charles Wilken, known to everyone as Lefty, was born in 1920 in Valentine, Texas, to a family of pioneers who made their living with mules and wagons. At a very early age, Wilken was riding horseback and packing a rope. He was an outstanding athlete competing...
Rodeo Notable • Inducted 1999 Rodeo producer and longtime rodeo advocate Bob Thain started his rodeo career in 1965. Born May 27, 1936, in Portland, Ore., Thain has produced rodeos across the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska. One of his largest productions was in 1980 at a PRCA rodeo held...
Saddle Bronc Riding • Inducted 1999 Mel Hyland of Edmonton, Alberta, grew up with his own arena and practice bucking horses. There could be no other career choice but rodeo, and in 1966, he joined the pros. It took him just one year to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, and...
All-Around • Inducted 1999 Tom Ferguson’s record and accomplishments set high standards for the ProRodeo cowboys who have followed in his footsteps. The Oklahoma native was the first cowboy to win more than $100,000 in a single season, to earn $1 million in career earnings and to capture six consecutive all-around...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 1999 This ranch-raised Nebraskan started his career as a contestant and formed his own dance band, but found his place in rodeo history behind the microphone. A PRCA member since 1965, Hadley Barrett has announced all of the big rodeos and a great number of the smaller...
Livestock • Inducted 1998 Miss Klamath is remembered as the undisputed queen of saddle broncs in the early 1950s. An unknown when she first started bucking, Miss Klamath soon developed a reputation for unseating all riders. Bronc riders of the era wondered if anyone would ever make a qualified ride on...
