CALGARY, AB – Ten individuals have been named for induction this year into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame, and include nine-time Canadian barrel racing champion and well-known trick rider Jerri Duce Phillips.
Phillips started her domination of the Canadian barrel racing circuit in 1964, and won her first Canadian championship when she was just 12 years old. She was also the first Canadian to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in 1975, and competed at the event again in 1976 and 1977.
Beginning her trick riding career at the tender age of nine, Phillips and her sister Joy traveled the world as The Flying Duces, even performing at the 1967 International and Universal Exposition (Expo) in Montreal, Que., and at the 1988 Olympics in Calgary, Alta.
As the result of her success as a barrel racer and trick rider, she was the first woman to be honoured by the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, and was inducted in 1997.
These days, Jerri, runs a trick riding school near Carseland, Alta., which she established in 2003. She also trains barrel horses, and occasionally works as a stunt performer in the film industry.
She will be inducted at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame’s annual ceremony later this spring. Canadian Rodeo News will have more on this story in April’s issue.
