Saddle Bronc Riding • Inducted 1979 Sharkey Irwin, a nephew of famous stock contractor and rodeo producer C.B. Irwin, grew up in the rodeo business and earned three world titles. In 1925 he earned his first ProRodeo victories in Laramie, Wyo., in saddle bronc riding and tie-down roping, as well as...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1979 By 1915, it took 18 railroad cars to move Charles Burton (C.B.) Irwin’s livestock and equipment to rodeos throughout the North America. He once produced a special one-day rodeo for President Theodore Roosevelt, who had missed Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days. This early-day rodeo entrepreneur was born...
Bareback Riding • Inducted 1979 As the inventor of the hard-handhold now used on virtually all bareback riggings, Jim Houston of Omaha, Neb., was one of the innovators of the laid-back, wild spurring style of bareback riding and won two world championships in the event. Houston, who was born Feb. 25,...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 1979 For nearly three decades, Homer Holcomb of Addy, Wash., was known as a world champion rodeo clown and bullfighter. He broke into rodeo in 1932 in Bozeman, Mont., in a show produced by John Ringling of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus fame. He won...
Bareback Riding • Inducted 1979 The single world championship won by John Hawkins is one of the most deserved in rodeo history. In steady pursuit of the title, he was runner-up for three consecutive seasons, once missing the crown by only $18. A broken thigh, later mended with a steel rod,...
Bull Riding • Inducted 1979 Don Gay won four consecutive world championships, 1974-77, the PRCA Season Championship 1976-78, and then followed with another three consecutive world championships, 1979-81. Since he won his last world crown in 1984, Gay has held the record with eight bull riding world titles. Experts in the...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 1979 Known to all in rodeo as the “Kajun Kid,” Dudley Gaudin left Baton Rouge, La., at the age of 15 to ride bareback horses and bulls with a Wild West show. When the show broke up, he went to Texas to enter rodeos as a bull...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 1979 He was the first professional rodeo barrelman/clown. Extremely short-legged and slow, Fulkerson needed a sanctuary in large arenas, so he built a barrel reinforced on the outside with old automobile tire casings. His frantic dashes to the barrel and plunges into it inspired awe and applause...
Tie-Down Roping • Inducted 1979 Glen Franklin won three world championships in four years. Born March 18, 1936, in House, N.M., Franklin carried a rope when he was still wearing diapers and put his loop on any dog, chicken or human that got within range. A natural athlete, he was on...
Tie-Down Roping • Inducted 1979 Troy Fort learned to rope in world-class competition and won two world championships after coaching by the great Jake McClure. Fort won his championships on the famous Baldy that he bought from Katherine Burk after the untimely death of her husband, Clyde. Although Baldy was famous...
