Mesquite starts 51st season

By Courtesy PRCA
Posted Monday, March 31, 2008

If it’s April, rodeo fans in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex can count on plenty of action-packed weekends for the next several months.

The Mesquite Championship Rodeo starts its 51st season Friday, April 4 and will consist of 10 PRCA rodeos through early June. Four of the May rodeos are part of the Heartland ProRodeo Series, which launched last October for the 2008 season.

The Mesquite Championship Rodeo began as a simple weekly rodeo, something to do for fun, rope some calves, ride some broncs.

Today, it is a shining example of what can happen when the excitement of rodeo catches the interest of sharp businessmen. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) has grown exponentially over the past few decades, and perhaps no single event has been as instrumental in that growth as the Mesquite Rodeo.

In 1958, Texas cowboy Neal Gay and PRCA world all-around champion Jim Shoulders put their heads and money together to form the Mesquite Rodeo. Local cowboys and an occasional non-Texan came each week to test themselves.

Before long, people began to fill the stands. By 1965, the Mesquite Rodeo had a roof over the arena and a four-lane highway offering easy access for fans who made the drive from Dallas and Fort Worth. Those fans still travel there today, packing the stands at what is now called Resistol Arena, one of the finest indoor rodeo facilities in the country. The arena includes special entertainment venues, banquet facilities, meeting space, luxury suites and – this is important in Texas – air conditioning.

The big move came in 1980, when Gay negotiated a deal to broadcast the Mesquite Rodeo on cable TV. Suddenly, millions of people who had never been exposed to rodeo could tune in each week.

The rodeo offers all the traditional roughstock and timed events, plus activities for kids. It is excellent entertainment and a huge success. In fact, it drew the attention of Tom Hicks, the owner of Major League Baseball’s Texas Rangers and the National Hockey League’s Dallas Stars, who purchased the whole production for $10 million.

Each weekend, the cowboys come to tangle with Mesquite Rodeo’s tough stock. Gay still produces the show, keeping the tradition and spirit of the West alive.