PRORODEO Sports News - August 23, 2024

TIME CAPSULE LARRY CONDON

NFR’s First Native

DeVere Helfrich photo

Bull rider Larry Condon competed at the 1962 NFR in Los Angeles. Condon finished ninth in the world standings that year.

Condon was first Native American at National Finals Rodeo BY PRCA STAFF

He won the average in bull riding eight times and placed in the average four times that year. His biggest wins in 1962 were in El Paso, Texas, with $868 for average money, while he totaled $962 at Pendleton, Ore., where he won the first go-round for $734. Condon tied with Freckles Brown with 178 points at the Lewiston (Idaho) Roundup in 1962. Three years later in 1965, he nailed down another major rodeo by tying with Rocky Rockabar at Walla Walla (Wash.) Frontier Days with 66 points. In 1966, Condon won the Drummond (Mont.) PRCA Rodeo with 65 points. Condon’s most memorable rodeo was the 1967 Calgary Stampede. Although he only split sixth place in the second round, he “twisted Joe Kelsey’s J53 for a red-hot 81 marking in the short heat and nailed the average with a 205-point total, six more than Joe Green’s overall tally,” according to the Aug. 1, 1967, edition of Rodeo Sports News . Condon won $1,921 at Calgary, about $17,911 in 2024 dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator. In 1968, Condon won Old Fort Days at Fort Smith, Ark., with 128 points on two head. He also won the Big Sky Roundup Rodeo at Great Falls, Mont., in 1969 with 70 points. Condon was still riding bulls in 1988 at 56 years old. The Gold Card member died at 81 on June 4, 2014, when his car collided with a tractor-trailer on state Highway 155 near the Colville Indian Agency campus in Nespelem, Wash.

B ull rider Larry Condon was the first Native American to compete at the National Finals Rodeo. He ranked 11th in the average and ended the season ninth in the world at the 1962 NFR in Los Angeles. Although he was often referred to by the nickname “Beaver,” he was born Lawrence Francis Condon, July 24, 1932, in Omak, Wash., to Smith and Margaret Condon, members of the Colville Confederated Tribes. The tribes consist of 12 bands (tribes) – the Arrow Lakes (Sinixt), Chelan, Colville, Entiat, Nespelem, Okanogan, Methow, Moses-Columbia, Joseph Band of Nez Perce, Palus, San Poll and Wenatchi. Condon kicked off his ProRodeo career in 1956 with a hometown rodeo win with 192 points at the Omak (Wash.) Stampede. He went on to win many of the biggest competitions in PRORODEO during a time when bull riding’s points system transitioned from allowing for points above 100 to the current standard of 100 being a perfect ride. Condon won the Ellensburg (Wash.) Rodeo in 1959 with 326 points on two head. The next year, he won the Molalla (Ore.) Buckeroo Rodeo with 364 points on two head. Condon was taken out of competition for a year and a half due to a car wreck in 1959. He returned to rodeo full time in 1961. That year, he won the Washington State Fair Rodeo at Puyallup with 509 points on three head. When he went to the 1962 NFR, he had placed 36 times in bull riding at 24 rodeos and five times in bareback riding, winning the average twice.

ProRodeo Sports News 8/23/2024

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