Team Roping • Inducted 2001 Les Hirdes started roping in 1943 when he traded a calf for a roping horse. At one time, he worked all of rodeo’s timed events, tie-down roping, steer wrestling and team roping. Beginning with the first National Finals Rodeo in 1959, Hirdes made 17 trips to...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 2001 Tom Hadley never planned to be a rodeo announcer. His career goal was to be a rodeo cowboy. During his competitive years, he entered bull riding, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping and team roping. Born Oct. 6, 1927, in Lawton, Okla., Hadley was a...
Rodeo Notable • Inducted 2001 Myron “Doc” Etienne is a city boy with a long and deep love of the West and the cowboy. Shortly after high school, he joined the Merchant Marines. After five years at sea, he enrolled in college and graduated with a law degree. His first job...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 2001 Jo Decker wore many hats during her rodeo career. She started her career shortly after high school as one of the “Ranch Girls” at the Madison Square Garden Rodeo. She was known as a consummate horsewoman and better able to diagnose a problem than the local...
All-Around • Inducted 2001 Paul Carney grew up working with stock and took great pride in breaking horses. His interest in school was mostly confined to sports and he was known to skip school to attend a rodeo or stock show. Every year he attended Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days, and at...
Steer Wrestling • Inducted 2001 C.R. Boucher may not have competed in rodeo growing up, but he certainly made up for it with a career spanning more than three decades. He was one of the most versatile cowboys in ProRodeo history. Contestant, chute boss, pickup man and board member are just...
Saddle Bronc Riding • Inducted 2001 Guy Weeks of Fort Worth, Texas, the son of a rodeo roper, was born on Jan. 3, 1932, to a family whose existence revolved around horses. He learned to ride by the time he could walk and was roping when he was just 4 years...
Contract Personnel • Inducted 2001 Jerry Olson grew up on ranches, always around horses and cattle. He entered his first rodeo at age 12, competing in bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and tie-down roping. At about the same time, the Olson family put together a horse act they contracted to local...
