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Congratulations
to Hadley Barrett, the 2002 PRCA Announcer of the
Year. This
is the fourth time he has been given this award,
receiving it earlier in 1983, 1985 and 1989.
The honor is not a surprise to this writer, as
he always makes his rodeo audience become part of the
program, and continually explains and educates the
fans with his wealth of knowledge about the sport and
the cowboys, cowgirls, and stock, participating.
He was born at North Platte, Nebraska, but
currently ranches at Kersey, Colorado.
He has announced four National Finals Rodeos,
one National Finals Steer Roping; been the World Cup
Announcer in Australia; announced the Canadian Finals
Rodeo seven times, and has so many other special
honors I can’t list them all.
Barrett is always a gentleman and a first-class
ambassador of rodeo.
I
just returned from the Wild West Arts Club convention
at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas.
This organization, headed by Mark Allen,
preserves and promotes the western arena arts.
Around 200 members of the club participated in
various competitions, seminars and showcases of trick
roping, whip manipulating, gun spinning and fast draw,
knife and tomahawk throwing, and horse catches.
Participants were from all over the United
States, Canada, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany,
Australia and England.
The youngest performer, who won The Most
Promising Young Roper Award was seven year old Cody
Lamb, of Jerome, Idaho.
The most senior participant was Cactus Jack a.
k. a. George Huber, age 90, of Colorado Springs, who
as a Professional Safety Engineer spent his career
using trick roping as a way to educate the public on
safety issues. Many
awards were given in every category. Anyone interested in becoming a member of this
organization should can contact
WWAC at 1-800-858-5568.
Andy
Rotz, of Hagertown, Maryland, shattered the existing
Guinness Book record in continuous Texas Skips, at the
Wild West Arts Club convention.
The existing record for continuous Texas Skips,
was 4,011. The
Texas Skip is a vertical loop, which the roper jumps
through every one and a half revolutions of the loop.
In 1993 Vince Bruce, 29 year old trick roper
from England, performed this feat in front of the
Empire State Building in New York City with
representatives from CBS, NBC, etc., as witnesses.
Bruce, who performed in the Will Rogers Follies
on Broadway for over 1,000 performances, has held this record for ten years, however, on March 11 in
the Tropicana Convention Center, Rotz spent three
hours and ten minutes doing continuous Texas Skips at
a very consistent pace. Approximately 175 Wild West Arts Club members witnessed this
accomplishment. When
Rotz collapsed to the floor in exhaustion, he had
completed 11,123 Texas Skips, a record that will, no
doubt, stand for some time.
Rotz, a tall, handsome young man spent two
years working toward this goal which not only requires
discipline and focus, but endurance and strength.
This versatile young cowboy also won several
awards with his agility with a gun. Hats off to Andy Rotz.
Rex
Rossi was given the Frank Dean-Will Rogers Award for
excellence in the art of trick roping, at the WWAC
gathering. Rossi, of Forest Hills, California, has been trick roping
since he was a youngster when his father was a
musician with the early day Buffalo Bill Wild West
Show.
A
superb trick roper, he performed at many rodeos and
wild west shows including the Rex Rossi South of the
Border Fiesta. At the Madison Square Garden rodeo, (the unofficial
predecessor of the PRCA National Finals Rodeo), in New
York City, Rex Rossi performed for fifty-six
performances, and did ‘horse-catches’ at each one
and never missed.
A showman of the highest quality.
Also
met a delightful ‘oldster’ at the WWAC who spent a
lifetime as a trick roper, eighty-eight year old,
Sylvester Braun.
He judged many of the events during the WWAC
convention. He
was born in Lynn County, Oregon, and moved to Anaheim,
California as a youngster, learning to trick rope from
a “rodeo groupie” uncle (had you ever stopped to
think “groupies” go back as long ago as that?).
He was a member of the CAA, a California rodeo
organization, and kept very busy trick roping
throughout the state.
He said in those days they expected a trick
roper to trick ride, too. Braun bought a ‘flashy’ horse and said he was “a
three-trick trick rider”.
Not only did he rope at rodeos, he also worked
with several wild west groups, Knotts Berry Farm, and
performed at nearly every hotel in southern
California. He
did stand-in work for several movie stars in various
movies, including the ‘ax-trick by Jimmy Stewart in
“How the West Was Won”.
His wife, Barbara, a dancer and rope spinner in
vaudeville, learned to trick ride and accompanied him
in many of their performances.
Braun is putting together information about
early-day shows and is looking for information about
the Gus Hornbrook Stage Show, which bucked horses on
the stage. If
you have any information about this early-day show,
please contact me.
Braun’s experience is so diversified and his
keen memory made my time with him delightfully
entertaining on the history of the western arts.
by
Gail Hughbanks Woerner
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