Skipper Voss

Contract Personnel • Inducted 2025

Skipper Voss went to college as a football player and pole-vaulter. It wasn’t until his good friend invited him to a rodeo and dared him to ride a bull that he was bitten by the rodeo bug. Before his ride at a rodeo, his friend got in trouble with his bull. Without thinking, Voss jumped down and lured the bull away from his friend. That was when he realized that being on the ground would earn him more money than riding the bulls.

Voss started his bullfighting career working for amateur rodeo producer Sloan Williams. Williams was known to have a wide variety of bulls in his pens, and Voss learned to work them all. In 1973 when Williams retired from rodeo, Voss joined the PRCA. He was hired by Tommy Steiner to bullfight at the Lafayette Rodeo. After that rodeo, Voss had a full-time commitment to work all Steiner’s rodeos.

It didn’t take long for Voss to rise to the top ranks in the PRCA. He was chosen to work his first National Finals Rodeo in 1974, only a year after joining the organization. He was selected for his second NFR in 1978. Voss tried to retire after the 1978 NFR, but Jim Sutton and Wrangler had other ideas. They introduced the Wrangler Bullfights – a series of bullfight events to crown a National Champion. Voss couldn’t resist. He won the first of the competitions at the Rapid City Rodeo in 1979. The Wrangler Bullfights allowed Voss to continue to fight bulls but without the hectic schedule of 130 rodeos a season. Voss would qualify for the finals six of the first seven years. He won the World Championship title in 1982 at the Beauty and the Beast Competition.

Voss taught many in the next generation of bullfighters at his schools. He was one of the rodeo clowns that insisted on the title bullfighter and fought to get them the recognition they deserved. His reverse step style of fighting bulls up close and letting them come to him earned him a reputation as one of the best.

World Championships: 1

Bull Fighting: 1982

Born: March 15, 1944 in Alvin, Texas