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THE
VOICE OF RODEO FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS
If you have had an interest in rodeo in the
last fifty years the name Clem McSpadden is bound to
be a familiar one.
But are you aware of how much his association
has impacted the sport?
He has been a knowledgeable and eloquent
announcer at numerous rodeos across the country,
including the early day National Finals Rodeo, plus
College, High School and Indian Finals.
He was also the General Manager of the National
Finals Rodeo for eighteen years, President of the
Board of the PRCA and a major representative for rodeo
against animal rights activists trying to shut down
the sport. He
also began one of the most popular roping competitions
on his Bushyhead Ranch in the 1970s and donated the
proceeds to help youngsters.
And this is just to name a few, not all, of
his many accomplishments in rodeo.
Clem was born in 1925 near
Bushyhead
,
Oklahoma
, and at two years of age the family moved to Oolagah,
to the family ranch of
Will Rogers where his father was the manager
for the next thirty-three years.
Will
Rogers
was the famous movie actor, trick roper, and
all-around entertainer in country during the
Depression era until he died in a plane crash in 1935.
Rogers
was Clem’s great-uncle.
As a little bitty young-un Clem took to the
rope just as his dad had before him.
His mother would play with Clem and act as
though she were announcing all the ‘best ropers of
the day’. Clem
would rope last. His
target was a bucket, and lo and behold.
He always ‘out-roped’ those good ropers –
so his mother said!
Clem’s first real matched
roping was at age ten at the Ed
Sunday Picnic on the edge of
Rogers
County
. A rodeo
and carnival was always part of the event.
Clem had never tied down a calf before and his
dad patiently showed him, with a steer string, how to
tie a calf. Clem
won the match, because he tied both his calves and his
opponent only tied one.
During school he competed in some area amateur
rodeos and in addition to his roping he tried steer
wrestling as well.
His first announcing job was in Story City,
Iowa. Monroe
Veach was producing a rodeo there and the Saturday
night rodeo was rained out.
It was necessary that the final performance be
held Sunday afternoon.
Veach’s son-in-law, George McAlister, who
usually did the announcing chores was sent back to
Trenton
,
Missouri
, to the Veach Saddlery to open up on Monday morning.
McAlister recommended to Veach that Clem
McSpadden announce.
Clem admits most of the contestants ‘turned
out’, but it was a start.
At a
Davenport
,
Iowa
, rodeo the announcer didn’t show up, and Clem again
was recommended. He
was paid $25 for announcing each
of four performances.
He also competed in the roping and won $286.
He left there with $386 in his pocket and
thought he’d never see another poor day.
Clem’s announcing took his from one end of
the country to the other.
Many of these rodeos had him return year after
year, He was the first announcer from the
United States
to be asked to announce at the famous Calgary Stampede
and the first at the Canadian Finals.
Clem remembers they hired three announcers at
the second National Finals Rodeo in
Dallas
. “It
really worked well; Cy Taillon acted as Master of
Ceremonies and introduced each event, Pete Logan
announced the rough stock events, and I announced the
timed events”, said Clem.
Meanwhile, out of the rodeo circle Clem was in
the Oklahoma Senate for eighteen years, and was
elected as President Pro Tempore.
He was then elected to U. S. Congress, and was
on the Rules Committee.
He has spent years since then with his son,
Bart, in the lobbying firm of McSpadden &
Associates.
There is probably no one with more knowledge
and better information about rodeo than McSpadden.
He especially knows the ropers as far back as
Bob Crosby, Everett Shaw, Fred Lowery, Ike Rude and
Dick Truitt and has been there for every era up to the
present. When
you hear him talk about the ropers of
today you know he knows what he’s talking about,
“Cody Ohl is something else.
Whitfield is so athletic.
Beaver has ice water in his veins, never seems
to hurry. Roy
Cooper revolutionized the tie.”
As
long as there are experts in the rodeo business such
as Clem McSpadden to inform and educate the rest of us
we’re in good shape!
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