ProRodeo Sports News - March 19, 2021

CATCHING UP WITH ... RUSTY WRIGHT(S)

Two Rustys Make a Wright

Jerry Gustafson photo

William “Rusty” Wright competes at the 1986 National Finals Rodeo with Rick Stock as his heeler.

1984 top rookie and current star both named Rusty Wright

BY MATT NABER W illiam “Rusty” Wright was attending a cowboy church service in San Antonio in 2020, and his friend Mike Fletcher announced that “Rusty Wright is here.” “… Afterward a lady came to me and said, ‘You’re not the Rusty I’m looking for,’ and I said,

But that’s where the

similarities end.

WilliamWright of Mount Pleasant, Texas, was born Sept. 18, 1963, and competed as a team roping header at the NFR in 1984- 87 and 1989. “My name is actually

Wright

Wright

WilliamMichael Wright, but I’ve always been called Rusty, and most people don’t know my real name,” William said, adding that he doesn’t know how he got the nickname. Thirty-two years later and more than 1,300 miles northwest, another Rusty Wright was born Nov. 10, 1995, in Milford. So far, he’s qualified for the NFR in 2015-16 and 2018-20. “I’m named after Rusty Allen, he’s my dad’s (Cody) old travel partner, and he (Allen) made the NFR a few times in saddle bronc riding (2004-08),” Rusty said. Neither Rusty nor his parents knew there was another Rusty Wright on the list of ProRodeo rookies of the year and NFR qualifiers. William first saw Rusty compete when Rusty was in high school and has followed his rodeo career. He was in the stands when Rusty competed at

‘No, ma’am,’ and she just turned and walked away,” Wright laughed. It’s not often he and Rusty Wright – the saddle bronc rider from Milford, Utah, the woman in San Antonio was expecting – are confused for one another, but it does happen. A TALE OF TWO RUSTYS William “Rusty” Wright was the 1984 Team Roping Rookie of the Year. Rusty Wright fromUtah was the 2014 Saddle Bronc Riding Rookie of the Year. Besides both being rookies of the year, they are also five-time qualifiers for the National Finals Rodeo.

ProRodeo Sports News 3/19/2021

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