Joe Alexander

Bareback Riding • Inducted 1979

Joe Alexander dominated bareback riding like no other cowboy has to date. His five consecutive world titles and two regular season championships in the 1970s remain a PRCA record. Alexander, born Nov. 4, 1943, in Jackson Hole, Wyo., was a natural athlete. Ranch-raised near Cora in western Wyoming, he competed in college rodeo, winning the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s title in 1966. Alexander entered about 85 rodeos a year, well below the 100-plus events of most full-time contestants of his era. He set the bareback riding world record in 1974 with a 93-point ride on Beutler Brothers & Cervi’s Marlboro in Cheyenne, Wyo. This mark stood until October 2002 when Wes Stevenson rode Kesler Rodeo’s Cover Girl for 94 points during the Wrangler Tour Finale in Dallas.

World Championships: 5

Bareback Riding: 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975

RAM Circuit Year-End Champion

California Circuit:

Bareback Riding: 1977, 1982

Mountain States Circuit:

Bareback Riding: 1975

Born: November 4, 1943 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Buffalo Bill Rodeo / North Platte, NE
Bareback Riding: 1972

California Rodeo Salinas / Salinas, CA
Bareback Riding: 1980, 1982

Cheyenne Frontier Days / Cheyenne, WY
Bareback Riding: 1973, 1974, 1976

Clovis Rodeo / Clovis, CA
Bareback Riding: 1974

Cody Stampede / Cody, WY
Bareback Riding: 1970, 1971, 1973, 1980

Deadwood Days of ’76 Rodeo / Deadwood, SD
Bareback Riding: 1969, 1972

Ellensburg Rodeo / Ellensburg, WA
Bareback Riding: 1972, 1975, 1978

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo / Fort Worth, TX
Bareback Riding: 1973, 1974, 1976

Grand National Stock Show & Rodeo / San Francisco, CA
Bareback Riding: 1976

Greeley Stampede / Greeley, CO
Bareback Riding: 1971

Iowa’s Championship Rodeo / Sidney, IA
Bareback Riding: 1972, 1975

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo / Tucson, AZ
Bareback Riding: 1971, 1975, 1976

National Western Stock Show & Rodeo / Denver, CO
Bareback Riding: 1974, 1981, 1983

Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo / Ogden, UT
Bareback Riding: 1976

Pendleton Round-Up / Pendleton, OR
Bareback Riding: 1971, 1977, 1979

Red Bluff Round-Up / Red Bluff, CA
Bareback Riding: 1974 (tie), 1976, 1977 (tie), 1978

Redding Rodeo / Redding, CA
Bareback Riding: 1973, 1979, 1980

Reno Rodeo / Reno, NV
Bareback Riding: 1974, 1981

Rowell Ranch Rodeo / Hayward, CA
Bareback Riding: 1981 (tie)

San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo / San Antonio, TX
Bareback Riding: 1974, 1976

Snake River Stampede / Nampa, ID
Bareback Riding: 1974, 1975, 1977

Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo / Spanish Fork, UT
Bareback Riding: 1971