PRORODEO Sports News - February 21, 2025

RODEO REVIVAL

T

he Cowboy Capital of the World Rodeo in Stephenville has a rich history and has been a PRCA rodeo since 1970.

and they came into this property. There's 700 acres here that we're sitting on right now. They bought it for the water rights and for the water of Stephenville. I went and sat down with the manager and a couple of the councilmen and told them, ‘Look, I'm not interested in what's below the ground, but what's on top of the ground.' So, in a matter of 30 minutes, we signed an agreement and had a home for the Cowboy Capital Pro Rodeo Association for the next 100 years. “That's how Stephenville is. That's how they get behind rodeo, and that's how hardcore that they are really, really dedicated into what we do and how we do things. The city of Stephenville is the backbone, and they're our major support er of the rodeo that we have every year.”

However, the fate of the longstanding rodeo was tested in 2022 when committee members were told their rodeo would not have a home anymore. That’s when Chad Decker, founder of the Cow boy Capital of the World Rodeo Association, sprung into action. “So, in 2022 we were we were told that we weren't going to be able to have a home for our rodeo anymore,” Decker said. “We were at Lone Star Arena, so when we heard that we went into fast mode. I've been working real closely with the city through a bunch of different projects,

Stephenville's massively popular Hard Eight BBQ restaurant

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