Team Roping • Inducted 1979 Dale Smith, an all-around timed-event cowboy from Safford, Ariz., won consecutive world team roping championships in 1956-57 and missed a third by just $13. In 1959 he went to the National Finals Rodeo in three events – team roping, tie-down roping and steer roping – becoming...
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...
Team Roping • Inducted 1979 Team roper John Miller was no stranger to rodeo and proved himself by winning two consecutive team roping titles in the early 1970s. The nephew of Ben Johnson, world champion team roper in 1953, and great-nephew of Ben Johnson, Sr., famous early-day roper, Miller took to...
Team Roping • Inducted 1979 Ben Johnson, son of a famous early-day roper, grew up determined to follow in his father’s footsteps. However, despite winning one world title, he was best known for his depictions of cowboys in the movies and his Oscar. Born June 13, 1918, in Foraker, Okla., Johnson...
Team Roping • Inducted 1979 The son of a working cowboy and ranch foreman, Leo Camarillo knew what discipline and hard work were all about when he embarked on his professional rodeo career. His upbringing helped him win four world team roping titles and a world all-around championship in the 1970s...
Team Roper • Inducted 2023 Doyle Gellerman started roping at age 5 with his father, who was a great team roper in his own right. Gellerman started out heeling, but quickly switched to heading. He admits that he was much better at roping horns. After rodeoing around California, Gellerman joined RCA...
Team Roping • Class of 2022 Bobby Harris always knew he was going to be a World Champion Roper. He started by becoming the youngest Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Steer Roping Rookie of the Year in 1978 at the age of 15. His first professional title would come four years later...
Team Roping • Inducted 2019 Allen Bach fell in love with roping at an early age. In order to concentrate more on roping, he moved from Washington to Arizona in high school so that he could practice longer. In 1977, he joined the PRCA and went to the National Finals Rodeo...
Team Roping • Inducted 2018 Ken “Speed” Williams was born and raised in Jacksonville, Fla. He started roping before he could walk, and by the time he was 14 he had a bank account full of winnings. Williams bought his PRCA card in 1988 and competed in the Southeastern Circuit calf...
Team Roping • Inducted 2018 Rich Skelton bought his PRCA card in 1986 and at the time of his induction, he was still competing. He made his first National Finals Rodeo appearance in 1990 heeling for Tee Woolman. When Woolman decided to slow down in late 1997, Skelton joined with header...
