PRORODEO Sports - April 24, 2026 Digital Edition

PASSINGS

LONGTIME PRCA STOCK CONTRACTOR JAMES HARPER PASSES AWAY AT 87 By Ted Harbin, Special to PRORODEO Sports News

J ames Harper, who founded Harper & Morgan Rodeo Co. alongside Ralph Morgan, died March 26 at the age of 87. An entrepreneur, Harper began chasing his business acumen at age 21, when he opened Harper Lumber Co.

getting into the stock contracting game himself. “I knew it was coming, but it’s still tough.” Harper & Morgan purchased its PRCA card in 1979 and had its first stock at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in 1980. The company flourished in the 1990s when it was made

He was also a rodeo cowboy, and his passion for the West ern lifestyle guided him to the creation of Harper’s Cow boy Store in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His background was instrumen tal in teaming with Morgan, another com petitor and good friend. “To a lot of people, every body’s saying rodeo legend

responsible for production and opening ceremo nies at the NFR. In the early 2000s, Harper sold the firm to Lovelace, Smith and Pete Carr. After a couple of years, Smith bought out his partners and owned that brand until 2018. Love lace was part of a group – which included Lemmel, Travis Adams and Dustin Murray – that acquired Harper & Mor gan, with Lemmel owning the brand now.

and all that stuff,” said Cheyenne Harper, a

PRCA File Photo

grandson and one of four Harper grandchildren. “He’s a big factor in my life, but I don’t see him as a rodeo legend or anything like that; to me, he’s just pawpaw. It’s probably the biggest loss our family could have besides my grandmother, who passed away two years ago. “This is going to be different.” It’s not just his family that thinks that way. “This is a pretty tough deal,” said Stace Smith, who served as a pickup man for Harper & Morgan before

“James taught me and Scotty both how to make money in the rodeo business when it’s hard to make money in the rodeo business,” Smith said. It is a business, but it’s also family. “He would always include everybody in as a family deal,” Cheyenne Harper said. “I rope calves, and every single day that I practiced, he’d be out there watching me. If I let him know I was roping, he was going to come out there on his golf cart and watch me practice.”

APRIL 24, 2026 PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS DIGITAL MAGAZINE 51