Reporter's note: Jim Nissen told me about the upcoming August 3rd induction of Harlem native Bob Ragsdale into the PRCA's Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. I'd seen bits and pieces of the National Finals (NFR) on television and attended a few local rodeos. That was about the extent of my knowledge of the world of rodeo and I knew nothing about Bob Ragsdale's illustrious career as a professional cowboy. I soon learned more about rodeo and the Ragsdales.

I met Bob Ragsdale and his wife, Ree, in their Landusky summer home a few weeks ago. Bob admits he's still a bit dazed about being a part of the upcoming celebration and induction into the PRCA's Hall of Fame. He described the selection and induction as, "the ultimate reward for a professional cowboy." He explained, "What makes this award special is it honors the cowboys in the rodeo. The identities of the selection committee are secret, but they're rodeo people who know and understand what it takes to be successful as a professional cowboy." Ragsdale will join the 2017 class that has six other inductees, including fellow Montanan and rodeo announcer Randy Corly, two famed rodeo horses and the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo Committee. For the first time ever two women barrel racers were part of this year's induction class.

Bob, who will turn 81 in October, and Ree Ragsdale have been married for 60 years. Sitting around their dining room table they shared some of their experiences, challenges and successes working as a team in the world of professional rodeo, raising a family and running a number of family businesses. Here's some of what I learned about them and the events that led to Bob's being honored by the PRCA.

Growing up in Harlem

Ragsdale's father, Slim, always had horses while young Bob was growing up in Harlem. Bob said, "My family would farm for a while, then move back to town. It was hard growing up on a farm back then. Wherever we were living dad would have horses and they would wander from north of Harlem to the Canadian border. There was always work to be done rounding up horses."

Bob's mom told a story about a man coming to the house to see if Bob would round up some horses for him. When the man was introduced to Bob, and saw that he was just a little kid, the man said, "Those horses are big," to which Bob replied, "I'll take a big rope."

Bob competed in the Montana High School rodeo program and won All Around in 1956, his senior year. He explained, "Back then there was no divisional or regional rodeos, you went to state for a tournament that anyone could enter so long as you preregistered. "I won Montana All Around and went on to the high school Nationals in Reno. I placed in a couple of events, but no wins." Asked if his less than stellar showing discouraged his dream of a pro rodeo career, he said, "No, I was more determined than ever to become a professional rodeo cowboy."

He shared that he had a couple of rodeo heroes when he was a youngster, especially Casey Tibbs. Tibbs was a famous cowboy who liked to work the rough stock. Tibbs had a flamboyant style and is credited with helping shape rodeo as the original American sport. He also fanned young Ragsdale's desire to be a professional cowboy.

Beginning a career as a professional cowboy

In October, right out of high school, Bob went to the Toots Mansfield Roping School in Texas. Mansfield was a six-time world champion calf roper and the first professional cowboy to start a school to teach future ropers. Ragsdale said, "He was a great guy, he showed me how to 'flank' a calf. At the time most professional ropers were legging calves. (flanking is grasping and lifting the flank of the calf to get it to the ground for tying versus grabbing the calf's legs to drop it to the ground). That immediately took a couple of seconds off my time."

To cover the expenses of getting to Texas and paying for the roping school Bob told, "My dad and I went to the bank in Harlem and borrowed $300 for the month-long school. At that time most people around here didn't have that kind of ready cash." Ree and Bob married in December, 1956, after he completed the roping school and returned to Montana.

Bob found work in the oil fields around Chinook. He explained, "There were all sorts of oil workers laid off but I was hired because the supervisor recognized my name from winning in a local rodeo." The oil rig laid off in April and he was unemployed again.

Yellowstone Park was looking for rodeo contestants. "It was a rodeo," Bob said, "but it was really a tourist show. We would work maintenance on the grounds for half the day, then do the rodeo show. They were looking for a calf roper, bulldogger and bareback bronc rider. That was 1956 and it was the last time I ever got on rough stock in the rodeo." He worked the Cody Night Rodeo, which is still operating, the next tourist season. In 1958 the Ragsdales had twin girls, then another girl in 1961.

With plans to 'fill my permit' with the RCA (becoming a member of the Rodeo Cowboys Association, later the PRCA) at the end of the rodeo season in 1961," Ragsdale said, "I won big at a rodeo in Caldwell, Idaho. The RCA representative for that region was waiting for me and said, "You had better have your permit before you show up at the next RCA rodeo." Members of the RCA resented non-members winning and reducing members' chances to go to the year-end national rodeo. Qualifying for the NFR is based on total winnings prior to the annual event.

That was the same year the family moved to California at the invitation of a farmer/rancher who also was a roper. Bob said, "Dan Branco had a place where we could keep horses and practice roping." With a need to be on the west coast for the beginning of the spring rodeo season, the Ragsdales eventually ended up in Chowchilla, California, where they lived until just a few years ago when they retired. They now spend winters in Bakersfield, California and summers at their place in Landusky, Montana.

Beginning in 1961, for the next fifteen years, Bob Ragsdale said, "I made a living roping calves, steer wrestling and team roping." He said, "I followed the money to choose rodeos. In the 1960-70's I'd go to 90-100 rodeos a year. If I got into a slump I'd do a small rodeo to earn some money and get back on the RCA (PRCA) tour for the bigger rodeos."

Because Bob roped left handed, he had to have horses that were comfortable seeing the rope on their left side. He explained, "A horse could be startled if it wasn't used to a left-handed roper, which meant I had to have my own horse, sometimes more than one horse to keep up with the rodeo schedule." He said often Ree and the kids would be driving one rig, pulling a horse trailer toward an upcoming rodeo, and he would be pulling a different horse to the another rodeo on his schedule.

Bob Ragsdale's achievements as a professional cowboy

Baseball player Dizzy Dean once famously said, "It ain't braggin' if you can back it up." Bob Ragsdale made a living as a professional roper and bulldogger for fifteen years...that's not bragging and he can back it up. Bob was both a rodeo competitor and, as one writer described him, "an ambassador for rodeo" through his service as an office holder and active volunteer in a number of rodeo associated groups and as a spokesperson for rodeo.

Ragsdale qualified for the NFR (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's National Finals Rodeo) a total of 22 times: top 10 in calf roping for 15 years in a row (1961-1975); five times in the top 15 for steer wrestling (1967-69, 72-73); team roping twice in 1966 and 1972 and NFR runner up for the All-Around in 1972 (the All Around winner is the PRCA cowboy who wins the most prize money in a year while competing in at least two events.)

And he didn't stop after the fifteen-year run at the National Finals Rodeo. When he was age qualified, he won eight world titles in the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association: three all around; four for calf roping and one ribbon roping.

In the last two decades he's been recognized with a number of inductions into rodeo related organizations: the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame, St. Paul, Oregon (2001); the Senior Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame (2001); the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City (2003) and The Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame in Billings.

And soon Ragsdale will reach the pinnacle of recognition for a professional cowboy. When Bob Ragsdale's induction ceremony is completed he will join 259 individuals, 33 famed rodeo animals and 28 rodeo committees already selected for the PRCA's ProRodeo Hall of Fame, all who've achieved the ultimate reward for a professional.

Kent Sturman, Hall of Fame Director, explained how inductees are chosen. He said, "There are usually about 300 individual names under consideration during any selection cycle. Each year about 100-120 people, several rodeo animals and rodeo committees are nominated from many sources. The nominees represent all aspects of rodeo and the names stay in consideration for three years, then drop off the list. Each class of inductees is chosen by a committee of anonymous people involved in rodeo." A nomination can be resubmitted every three years and a number of nominees have been inducted posthumously since the hall of fame began in 1979.

Working as an ambassador for rodeo

Bob Ragsdale not only competed at the highest level of rodeo, he also worked to promote the sport, even during his most active years as a competitor. After two years as Vice President, he served an additional three years as President of the PRCA, from 1973-75. Asked about some of the major issues facing rodeo during that time, he said, "The anti-rodeo people, especially the animal rights folks, were a lot more active than they are now." While President of the PRCA Bob was credited with getting the term "professional" added to the name of the organization.

From 1973 to 1981 Bob worked for Sears as a consultant for the company's western wear brand of clothing. He got connected to Sears through his friendship with Mac Baldrige, the Yale-educated President of Scoville Steel in Connecticut. Baldrige grew up in Nebraska and still competed as a roper, flying to rodeos around the country when his schedule allowed. When a Sears executive told Baldrige of his interest in finding a 'real cowboy' to help the company develop and market their western wear, Ragsdale's name came up.

Bob explained, "There were several professional cowboys interviewed and I was chosen to help Sears with their western wear line of clothing." He described his role as "helping Sears clothing buyers and designers meet with rodeo fans and cowboys to see what kinds of clothing they were wearing or would like to see available. I even went to some of the markets with the Sears buyers to help chose the clothing for the next year's catalog." Bob often was photographed in Sears western wear for their catalogs and in 1973 was on the cover of the annual western wear catalog.

He also represented Sears, along with professional athletes from other sports, at events. He told of one event where he and Gale Sayers, of Chicago Bears fame, and Tom Seaver, who played many years for the New York Mets, were handing out awards to publications and media groups that had promoted Sears clothing. He laughed when he told, "Sears had a western style tuxedo made for me to wear at that presentation. It's the only time I ever had it on."

In 1983 Mac Baldrige, who by then was U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Ronald Reagan, organized an 'exhibition' rodeo for the President and selected guests. He asked Bob to rope in the exhibition which was staged in an arena just outside Washington, DC. This gave the Ragsdales another opportunity to promote rodeo. I noticed a picture of Ree and Bob shaking hands with President Reagan, one of the few pictures they had prominently displayed in their living room in Landusky.

Bob also helped create Friends of Rodeo (FoR), a non-partisan group that responded to animal rights issues. He said, "Through FoR we did a better job of telling our side to the media and even instituted 'chute tours' so critics and media personnel could see reality about animal treatment." Bob served as President of FoR and was on governing boards of several other rodeo related organizations, including the Senior Pro Rodeo executive board, during the 1990's. Others have said that he, and other volunteers during that time, helped lay the groundwork that allowed the explosion of interest in the rodeo in the last 20-30 years.

Reflections on a professional rodeo cowboy's career

Bob Ragsdale was a rodeo star and has continued to affect the world of rodeo. I was curious how Bob viewed his contribution to rodeo, the changes he'd seen and how his family felt about the career of such a famous father and husband.

Bob's wife, Ree, sat at the table during our interview and shared her take on being a part of Bob's rodeo career. As to how she felt about his chosen path, she smiled and said, "How else would I have seen so much of the world." On the photo of Ree and Bob shaking hands with President Reagan, there was a personal note from Mac Baldrige, then U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The couple had come a long way from the Milk River Valley.

Cathy Watkins, one of twin daughters of Bob and Ree, told me that she and her sisters never really thought about how famous their dad was. She said, "After Denny (Cathy's husband and a Professional Team Roper) and I were married we were visiting mom and dad and a guy drove up into the yard. He was from Hawaii and wanted dad to come to Hawaii and teach a roping school. We all went to Hawaii and while dad taught ropers the rest of us were treated to the sites of the islands. I think it was at that point I realized just how special my dad's role was in rodeo-he was known all over the world. My sisters and I got to see a lot of things and meet a lot of interesting people because of his career choice."

As to interesting people, Cathy told about meeting a fellow teenager she and her sister met while traveling with their dad. The teenager played the guitar and the girls all sang together. The guitar player was Reba McEntire, whose dad and older brother were both accomplished ropers. Cathy said, "Of course none of us kids, at that time, had any idea of how Reba would develop into a famous singer and actress."

I was curious about Bob's view of how rodeo has changed, especially the growth in its popularity over the last number of years. He said he believed exposure of rodeo competition on television has "educated and popularized the sport with a larger part of the country." He said there are now 600-700 PRCA rodeos a year and that makes rodeo more available to more people. He also feels moving the National Finals Rodeo to Las Vegas, which happened 30+ years ago, increased interest in rodeo.

For Bob, the biggest change is in the rodeo competitors and the amount of money they make. He said, "When I first got into professional rodeo, most of us were cowboys. The competitors now are truly athletes, devoting their lives to the sport and continually doing things to improve their ability to compete." In the old days, "We often had to work other jobs between rodeos to keep our families going."

And the winnings have increased. Bob recalled that in 1972, "When I was RCA All Around runner up at the NFR, I think first place for All Around paid about $40,000. That number now is in the neighborhood of $300,000-400,000. Many of the current contestants come to the NFR already having won $200,000 just to earn a berth." He added, "Competing at the top level has a lot of expenses for travel, horses and gear."

Asked what he would advise to aspiring cowboys and cowgirls, Bob said, "I believe the harder you work the luckier you get." He added, "It's really important to work with and get instruction from top performers. When I started out there was only Toots Mansfield's roping school, which I attended. Now there are many schools for all aspects of rodeo. To successfully compete these modern professional cowboys have to learn every advantage."

Later after the face-to-face interview with the Ragsdales, I asked Bob, by phone, what he believed his legacy would be for rodeo. After a few seconds of silence on the phone he said, "Well, that's a tough one. All I can say is I always tried to do my very best." That seems to pretty well sum up his approach to the rodeo, straightforward and no frills.

Thankfully Bob Ragsdale did his very best and now he's receiving the ultimate recognition. The "Journal" congratulates Bob Ragsdale, and his family, for this great recognition of a great rodeo legend.

Steve Edwards

Bob and Ree Ragsdale pose for a 2017 photo in the front yard of their summer house in Landusky. Bob will be inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in August. He graduated from Harlem High School in 1956, Ree grew up in the Landusky area.