COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – What do Mick Jagger, Chuck Norris, bucking bull Kowabunga, Priscilla Presley, Roger Staubach, Kelly Kaminski and the late President Ronald Reagan have in common?
They all have been to the Mesquite Championship Rodeo. The famous Texas rodeo has been attracting world leaders, celebrities, professional and circuit cowboys and cowgirls and thousands of rodeo fans since 1958.
Mesquite Championship Rodeo organizers, participants and fans will celebrate its 50th season when the weekly rodeo series kicks off on April 6 at the Resistol Arena. While some PRCA rodeos are held for a weekend or a week or two, the Mesquite Championship Rodeo is held on Friday and Saturday nights for six months. The rodeo series wraps up on Sept. 29.
Mesquite, a suburb of Dallas, became a hotbed for rodeo thanks to the driving force of its founders and organizers, its close proximity to a booming metropolitan area and its access to a pair of major airports. The Texas legislature proclaimed the city of Mesquite the “Rodeo Capital of Texas” in 1993.
The impact of the Mesquite rodeo went well beyond the Texas borders because of its national, and later regional, weekly television broadcasts dating back to the late 1970s. The rodeo was broadcast on ESPN and The Nashville Network and now can be found on Fox Sports Southwest. The Mesquite Championship Rodeo has introduced the sport to many first-time fans, many watching from their couches on a Sunday night.
“Everybody across the country would get it (on TV), and even people who didn’t grow up in a rodeo-oriented place knew the Mesquite Rodeo,” said Kaminski, a two-time world champion barrel racer. “I had an uncle who lived up in Illinois, and I remember that when I first went pro he said ‘Are you going to ride in Mesquite?’ and I said ‘Yes, I am.’ That was kind of neat. Someone like him, someone who didn’t know anything about rodeo, knew about Mesquite.”
The Mesquite Championship Rodeo did more than help build the sport’s fan base. Cowboys and cowgirls fine-tuned their skills at the weekly rodeo.
“You can go there on any weekend and there’s going to be circuit cowboys and cowgirls, and there’s going to be world champions,” Kaminski said. “You just never know who is going to show up, and that’s what makes it fun.”
Along with rodeo action, the Mesquite Championship Rodeo features chuck wagon races, bull poker, pony rides for children, a petting zoo, a calf scramble and a grand entry fans may participate in. Children may also register for the mutton busting. Spectators can stroll through Wild Bill’s Western Store and eat at Sonny Bryan’s BBQ Pavilion.
Resistol Arena seats up to 5,300 for the general public and offers a third-floor ring of private Champion Suites for parties and corporate entertaining. Resistol Arena is part of the $20 million Rodeo Center complex. Facilities include the adjacent Hampton Inn & Suites and Convention Center & Exhibit Hall.
“If you’re from New York or New Delhi, and if you’re visiting Dallas, one of the things you expect to see is something Western,” said John Painter, public relations director for the Mesquite Championship Rodeo. “And this is a gateway, a door to rodeo.”
A brief history
When the Mesquite Championship Rodeo founders, including ProRodeo Hall of Famers Neal Gay and Jim Shoulders, conceived of the idea for a long-running series rodeo in 1958, they knew of no others. They just wanted to make sure they had jobs when they stopped traveling and competing in rodeos.
The Mesquite Championship Rodeo struggled in its early years, but grew with the husband and wife team of Neal and Kay Gay as the guiding forces. It faced several challenges at first. The venture lost $13,000 its first year. The rodeo’s first building wasn’t enclosed and the arena got horribly muddy after rain storms.
Before the completion of Interstate Highway 635 in 1970, fans would get lost trying to find the arena.
In the early years, Neal Gay ran a feed lot and used car lot and sold insurance and real estate because he didn’t know if he could make a living operating the rodeo. But the pair moved forward. Kay became the rodeo secretary and designed costumes, and Neal rounded up the livestock. The couple sold tickets before performances and picked up trash afterward.
A big move came in 1986 when the rodeo relocated 300 yards south of its original site to Mesquite Arena. The name of the arena was changed to Resistol Arena in 2000. The rodeo was also helped by publicity and television coverage. The Mesquite Championship Rodeo appeared in National Geographic magazine in 1980, Mesquite rodeo clowns appeared on the Today Show in 1981, and top cowboys and cowgirls, celebrities and dignitaries attended the rodeo annually.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach was among the first suite holders in 1986. President Reagan attended a special performance in 1988, and in that same year, the King and Queen of Sweden, King Carl XVI and Silvia, were also guests. In 1990, future President George W. Bush attended the Walt Garrison All-Star Rodeo to benefit multiple sclerosis at Mesquite Arena. George Strait performed at the benefit in 1993, and segment of the television show Walker, Texas Ranger was shot at the arena in 1995.
In 1999, Dallas businessman Tom Hicks, who is the owner and operator of the Southwest Sports Group, acquired the Mesquite Championship Rodeo, adding it to his sports empire that includes the Texas Rangers baseball team and Dallas Stars hockey team.
However, Neal and Kay Gay and their family remained involved with the rodeo. Neal Gay produced the rodeo, and his youngest son, Jim Gay, later became the general manager of the rodeo. Both hold those titles today.
Jim Gay said his father’s good reputation is among the reasons the rodeo has remained popular with fans, competitors and celebrities.
“It’s his word,” Jim Gay said. “He’s always been an upstanding person that way. His word is what it means. The reputation gets out with that, and people respect that. I know there are probably a lot of cowboys who have had their differences with him, but I know they all respect him for that.”
Neal Gay, who turns 81 in June, still helps with the livestock and leads the grand entry on horseback.
Mesquite: A family business
Along with Jim Gay, the other two sons of Neal and Kay Gay, Pete and Don, also got involved in the business. Don Gay, now a rodeo broadcaster, made history by winning a record eight bull riding world championships and was inducted in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979.
The family eventually developed its own roughstock breeding program on a 1,000-acre ranch in Terrell, Texas, to supply animals for the Mesquite Championship Rodeo and other rodeos.
Neal Gay also owned several famous bucking bulls, such as Ruff and Ready, Kowabunga, Dodge Dakota and Joe Kool. The weekly cable television show made some of the bulls famous, and fan clubs were formed.
“The milestone of 50 years for any business, especially a family run business, is fairly unusual for something that has been reasonably successful,” Don Gay said. “It never made a lot of money, but it made a lot of rodeo fans and it made a lot of good cowboys.”
Jim Gay echoed his brother’s sediments and said the rodeo and his father’s impact goes beyond Texas.
“A lot of things started because of him,” Jim Gay said. “Like with the TV, he had the TV (broadcasts) before TV was cool, like with ESPN and TNN. It was before the bull riding events came about.”
“I totally believe that the television, and Mesquite’s partnership, helped build rodeo,” Kaminski said.
For more information about the Mesquite Championship Rodeo, visit www.mesquiterodeo.com.
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