PRORODEO Sports News - August 9, 2024

TIME CAPSULE LEONARD WARD

History Maker PRCA ProRodeo file photo Leonard Ward shown in action during his rodeo days. Ward, a star bareback and saddle bronc rider, was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2009.

Leonard Ward was first cowboy to win Triple Crown in one year BY PRCA STAFF L eonard Ward, who spent 45 months as a prisoner of war during World competition in 1939 and ’40. He went to Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean in 1941 as a construction worker. Nine months later, he was transferred to nearly 1,200 miles west to Wake Island; he’d been there only three weeks when Wake Island and Pearl Harbor were attacked by the Japanese on Dec. 7, 1941. Ward and his 1,200 civilian co-workers, along with 500 military personnel, were captured by the Japanese on Dec. 23, 1941. Most were sent to a POW camp in China in January 1942, but

War II, enjoyed one of the greatest years in rodeo history in 1934 when he won the bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and all-around championships. He became the first cowboy to achieve a Triple Crown by winning three gold buckles in one year. Ward, who competed in every event over the course of his career, said he won at least 16 firsts in 1934 – in bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding and steer decorating. Born in Chehalis, Wash., in 1903, Ward went to high school in North Platte, Neb., and competed in his first rodeo in 1920 in Ogallala, Neb. He worked as a ranch hand on the Cogger and Taylor Ranch in Sutherland, Neb., while continuing a rodeo career that landed him in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2009. Ward suffered a badly broken leg during California Rodeo Salinas in 1937; due to complications, he spent six months in the hospital, and another six months recuperating, before returning to rodeo

Ward was among 350 kept on Wake Island to rebuild its airfield and other facilities. He was later moved to POW camps near Sasebo, Fukuoka and Nagasaki, Japan, for other projects before being released at war’s end. When he returned home in 1945, Ward returned to the construction business in Southern Oregon and Northern California. In 1950, he bought a ranch near Medford, Ore., where he raised cattle and horses and lived until his death in 1985. Ward also operated a dude ranch in Talent, Ore., where John F. Kennedy stayed during the 1960 presidential race.

ProRodeo Sports News 8/9/2024

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