Ram Rod reporting for rodeo duty

I spent a half a dozen years covering the Daddy of ’em All, otherwise known as Cheyenne Frontier Days. By the final day of the last two weeks in July, it was more like Frontier Daze.

I was there when a bull called Taking Care of Business circled around clipped Lane Frost, killing the former world champion. I remember the hollow look in friend and former world champion Tuff Hedeman’s eyes the following year when the pack of vultures called the media circled around and asked the inevitable questions. Tuff managed to cowboy up and get through the session. He won his own world championship later that year in 1989 with a remarkable tribute to his fallen friend. Hedeman needed a qualified ride in the 10th round to win the gold buckle, but he kept riding another eight seconds in tribute to Frost.

What I really know about rodeo is similar to what’s lying there on the arena floor, but that rodeo coverage experience stayed with me over the next couple of decades. They call me Ram Rod. Well not really. But this is a family newspaper and I can’t say what they really call me.

I took a job out in Manteca, Calif., thinking I was on my way to surfer girls and the great tan I always wanted. Sure ’nuf, former world champion bull rider Ted Nuce lived down the road in Escalon, Calif. Teddy Bear did something that might not ever happen again, qualifying for 14 consecutive National Finals Rodeo. He won a gold buckle in 1985 and rode that same bull Wade Leslie posted the 100-point ride on to a 93 to win a round 4 at the 1993 NFR. So when Ted decided to retire, the paper wanted a story. “Send the Wyoming guy,” the other sports writer said as if rodeo were beneath him.

I made my way to Oregon along the vagabond trail newsmen seem to follow down to Medford, a stone’s throw from Central Point and the Wild Rogue Roundup. I’d have given anything to see Wade Leslie from George ride Wolfman Skoal to rodeo history with the 100-point ride. But I do have a story to tell about the Medford Mail-Tribune. They didn’t see rodeo as being worth holding for on deadline when they had Oregon football and whatever they play at Oregon State already in the can. Sure ’nuf, they didn’t hold and Wade and the Wolfman made history. So when I showed up, they sent the Wyoming guy out to save face.

I rehashed the story a bit and asked the world ranked guys what they thought about a 100-point ride in 1991? “If it was such a good bull, how come it got rode,” one feller said. Watch the video dude. In fact, go back and watch Teddy Bear’s ride on Wolfman to win a round at the NFR in 1993.

In Gillette, Wyo., I had a chance to see the Wright boys ride. They’re kind of like the first family of saddle bronc riding. It’s hard to even name ‘em all — Cody, Jake, Jesse, Spencer, Rusty — I’m sure I’m missing more than one. When I saw Rusty fresh off a high school national championship, at the Buck-n-Ball Rodeo in 2013 I was thinking he was the next great Wright saddle bronc rider. But I talked with Columbia River Circuit bullfighter Rowdy Barry, who’s in Gillette as we speak watching the High School National Finals Rodeo, and he says Rusty’s younger brothers Ryder, Stetson and Statler, are on their way.

It’s kind of wild really how one family can dominate a sport like that. The Wright boys claimed four world championships in the past seven years and two runners-up. In 2014, four of ’em made it to the 15-man field at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas and wound up first, fifth, eighth and ninth in the world.

The rodeo trail has also taken me to Wade Leslie’s house out in George. I had a chance sit down with Wade and hear tales of the 100-point ride and see the display of his chaps, gloves and pictures of that famous ride on the Wolfman there in his living room.

So to tell ya the truth, I’m looking forward to experiencing the Moses Lake Roundup Aug. 18-20. The history, the stories, I have no doubt it’s a great rodeo. They all are.

So you can expect Ram Rod to report for duty. I still watch where I step, so I’m not a for real cowboy, but I respect the spirit of the west and everything it stands for.

Rodney Harwood covers sports and business for the Columbia Basin Herald.