IKE SANKEY Stock Contractor Inducted 2026 From the start, you might have pegged Ike Sankey for a world champion bronc rider, but that is not the direction he chose after three years on the road. Sankey competed in Little Britches and High School Rodeo around his home in Rose Hill, Kansas. He bought...
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...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1997 Swanny Kerby started his rodeo career more than 50 years ago, rounding up wild mustangs and range bulls. He trailed that string to his first rodeo at the Grand County Fair in Moab, Utah, in 1945. From that first rodeo, Kerby and the Bar T have...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1996 A second-generation stock contractor, Tommy Steiner of Austin, Texas, began his rodeo career as a 10-year-old doing rope tricks off the back of a horse he had trained. The Steiner Rodeo Company was on the road by 1945, one of the first PRCA stock contracting companies...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1995 Today’s rodeo world knows Cotton Rosser of Long Beach, Calif., by his spectacular opening ceremonies at rodeos on the West Coast and for many years at the National Finals Rodeo. This “P.T. Barnum” of professional rodeo searches out ideas from sources as remote from the sport...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1994 Harry Vold is one of only two stock contractors to provide animals for every National Finals Rodeo. Vold, many times voted by his peers as Stock Contractor of the Year, is known behind the chutes affectionately and respectfully as the “Duke.” Born Jan. 29, 1924, in...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1994 Bob Barnes has been called the premier rodeo producer in America’s heartland. Known as the “Colonel,” Barnes prides himself on being able to produce what he advertises – a top professional rodeo. Barnes, born April 19, 1929, in Cherokee, Iowa, started his rodeo career as a...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1993 Neal Gay’s professional rodeo career began as a contestant in Atoka, Okla., in 1945. Born June 25, 1926, in Dallas, Gay rode bulls, saddle broncs and barebacks and wrestled steers. His contestant years have since been overshadowed by his stock contracting and rodeo production skills. In...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1992 Reg Kesler was known for almost half a century as a top-notch stock contractor and rodeo producer. Over the years a large number of his animals were chosen as top bucking stock at the National Finals Rodeo, the Canadian Finals and the Montana Circuit Finals. He...
Stock Contractor • Inducted 1990 Verne Elliott started his rodeo career as a contestant. The Platteville, Colo., native competed in his first rodeo at the 1907 Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days, doing so in both the timed and roughstock events. A 1910 injury forced his retirement from competition, and he turned to...
