PRORODEO Sports News - January 10, 2025

Dec. 21, in Torrington, Wyo. He was 85. Finnerty was born in Cheyenne, Wyo., in 1939. His father bought the M Bar Ranch in 1945 and Jack, at the age of six, became a main cowhand. He said he became a cowboy because he was too young to build fence. Finnerty attended high school at Saint Mary’s in Cheyenne and attended college for a short period of time at the University of Wyoming. In 1960, he married Louise Munson who was a great cowgirl herself. They lived at Slater on the ranch and raised horses and Hereford cattle. Finnerty won many awards for bareback riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling and team roping. The last time he rode a bull was when he was 56 at a Senior Pro Rodeo in Hyannis, Neb. Before PRORODEO had circuit finals, Finnerty was the all-around champion for the state of Wyoming in 1968. Jack also is considered one of the top athletes in Wyoming history – competing in athletics as a star running back and standout track athlete. Finnerty was a man who wasn’t afraid of hard work, and a fixture in the rodeo community. The Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame’s chief goal is “to preserve, promote, perpetuate, publish and document Wyoming’s rich working cowboy and ranching history through researching, profiling and honoring individuals who broke the first trails and introduced that culture to this state.” Finnerty, who was inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2019, was a model of that spirit. “My dad was the true spirit of Wyoming,” said Matt Finnerty, about his father. “He was a cowboy and a rancher, and a businessman and he was always a great friend. His loyalty and his tenacity were my favorite two things about him. He was always willing to help. There was always 100 people who would come to the house and practice steer wrestling, calf roping and steer roping. He was a big proponent of rodeo. “He judged the National High School Finals Rodeo for a lot of years, and he judged the state high school finals in Louisiana with Freckles Brown for years. He judged the state finals in Nebraska, and he was involved with steer wrestling to the end. He would always take 40 halters to Ote (Berry) for the junior steer wrestling. He was the first president of the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association when it was called the National Old Timers Association. He was on the fair board in Wheatland.” In 1997, Finnerty was also inducted into the National Senior Pro Rodeo Association’s Hall of Fame, and in 2018 he was recognized with the Craig Thomas Cooperative Service Award from the Wyoming Rural Electric Association. In addition to serving on the Wyoming High School Rodeo board, Finnerty has also served on

the Wheatland (Wyo.) REA board since 1979, and the Tri-State board since 1988, the longest serving Tri-State director. “There’s no quit in him,” Matt said. “Once he took something on, he would take it to the end. He was 1-of-1 and there was nothing he couldn’t do.” And he modeled that every day in ranching and in parenting, teaching his children how to finish what they start. “He taught me there’s nothing more important than good friends and family,” Matt said. TRIO OF PRORODEO HOF BARREL RACERS PASS Three ProRodeo Hall of Fame barrel racers passed away in the last month. Fay Ann Horton Leach, a 2023 inductee as a notable, died suddenly on Jan. 6 at 88 years old. Sammy Thurmon Brackenbury, a 2019 inductee as a competitor, passed away at 91 years old. And Florence Youree, a 2019 inductee as a notable, died at 91 years old at her home in Oklahoma. The ProRodeo Hall of Fame began inducting barrel racers and members from the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association in 2017. Horton Leach received her induction due to her impact on the WPRA as a founding member, competitor and board member. In the 1960s, Horton was elected to the GRA Board of Directors and served stints as both the barrel racing and calf roping director. Thurman Brackenbury qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 11 straight times and won a barrel racing world championship in 1965. She was the only daughter of PRCA cowboy Sam Fancher. She was one of the first women to rope in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (predecessor to the PRCA) when her father entered the team roping at the Santa Maria Rodeo, and his partner failed to show. Youree joined the Girls Rodeo Association (GRA), now the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA), in 1951, and she hit the ground running both inside and outside the arena. Youree was among the Top 15 in the world six times and won the WPRA all-around title in 1966, but her administrative service to the GRA/ WPRA made her mark in the sport. Youree served the WPRA as a director, then President from 1960-64, and then secretary treasurer. During that time, Youree worked to get barrel racing included at the National Finals Rodeo with the help of 1990 ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee Clem McSpadden and Oklahoma Chamber of Commerce manager Stanley Draper. Barrel racing became a featured event at the NFR in 1967.

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SADDLE BRONC RIDER BUD LONGBRAKE PASSES AWAY Saddle bronc rider Bud Longbrake, winner of the average at the 1990 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, passed away Dec. 20 at IHS Hospital in Eagle Butte, S.D. He was 62. Longbrake, who called Dupree, S.D., home, qualified for the NFR in 1990, 1991, 1993, 1996 and 2001. “We grew up together doing 4-H and going to high school,” said fellow saddle bronc rider Red Lemmel, Longbrake’s lifelong friend. “We also rodeoed together in the PRCA. Bud always had a smile on his face, and he always wanted to be a saddle bronc rider, and he was just a good all-around guy who always had your back. And whatever he did, he always worked hard at it.” Robert Etbauer, who was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2012, rodeoed with Longbrake. Etbauer won his two world championships in 1990 and 1991. “He was just a great cowboy,” Etbauer said. “He was good to rodeo with, very enjoyable to be around and a bronc riding son of a gun. We are sure going to miss him, and we thought a whole lot of him. He was a talented bronc rider who always had a smile on his face.” Longbrake, who was known for riding with a toothpick in his mouth, wasn’t a natural saddle bronc rider according to Lemmel. “When he started out it was pretty rough for Bud in high school,” Lemmel said. “He would get on anything and of course his dad (Pete) was a contractor, and all his brothers rode broncs. It was fairly hard for Bud in the beginning but once he figured it out, he was good. Bud had a little bit different style than everybody else. It is kind of like the style they have now. He always rode with a longer rein. He was a little guy, and he had to learn to ride with a longer rein and be strong enough to take the pulling. “I don’t know how many times he went to the Indian Finals, but he was really proud to be an Indian. He didn’t have any enemies. He just wanted to be known as a great cowboy.” Longbrake finished a career-best sixth in the PRCA world standings in 1990. After he stopped competing, Longbrake owned quite a few bucking horses. “Bud was a hero around here around the reservation and even off the reservation,” Lemmel said. MULTI-EVENT COWBOY JACK FINNERTY PASSES AWAY Former multi-event PRCA competitor Jack Finnerty, who was inducted into the Wyoming Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2019, passed away on

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