Sonny Tureman

Bareback Riding • Inducted 1979

Sonny Tureman won the world bareback riding championship only once, but three-time world champion Jack Buschbom said, “Take my word for it, he’s (Tureman) the greatest bareback bronc rider in the world, and I know a few.” An Oregon horse breaker, Tureman won the rookie saddle bronc riding at Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days and the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up in 1941. Following World War II in 1946-47, he finished fourth in the world bareback riding standings, finally taking the championship in 1948, edging out Buschbom by $18. Among his contemporaries there was no doubt that had he chosen to rodeo full-time, Tureman could have won the world title almost any year.  A serious injury in an auto accident in 1954 impaired his ability to compete. Tureman was born Nov. 4, 1918, in Prairie City, Ore., and died Oct. 18, 1995.

World Championships: 1

Bareback Riding: 1948

Born: November 4, 1918 in Prairie City, Oregon
Died: October 18, 1995 in Okedale, Oregon

California Rodeo Salinas / Salinas, CA
Bareback Riding: 1948, 1949, 1952, 1957 (tie)
Team Roping: 1972

Clovis Rodeo / Clovis, CA
Bareback Riding: 1951, 1953, 1962
Team Roping: 1968

Denver National Western Stock Show & Rodeo / Denver, CO
Bareback Riding: 1947

Grand National Stock Show & Rodeo / San Francisco, CA
Bareback Riding: 1951, 1953, 1954

Iowa’s Championship Rodeo / Sidney, IA
Bareback Riding: 1947 (tie)

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo / Tucson, AZ
Bareback Riding: 1949, 1951

Red Bluff Round-Up / Red Bluff, CA
Bareback Riding: 1949 (tie), 1953
Team Roping: 1971

Redding Rodeo / Redding, CA
All-Around: 1953
Bareback Riding: 1964
Saddle Bronc Riding: 1953 (tie), 1956
Team Roping: 1956, 1957, 1958, 1960

Reno Rodeo / Reno, NV
Team Roping: 1966

Snake River Stampede / Nampa, ID
Bareback Riding: 1948