PRORODEO Sports News | January 24, 2025

PRORODEO STOCK CONTRACTORS

Mike Cervi uses the barrel to distract a bull during a performance in Phoenix in 1967. In his teenage years, Mike spent time serving as a rodeo clown and bullfighter from time to time. Jerry Gustafson photo

the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. “We are very blessed that Mike got in the business when he did with the companies that he did. As in Gene Autry and the two Beutler Brothers, Lynn and Jake Beutler,” Binion said. “Then merging those two companies together, it was a timing thing because I don’t know if it could be done today. “When Mike did it there was 20 stock contracting companies, now there are 87. Back then, when Mike was doing it there were 850 rodeos. Now there’s 650 to 700 out there across the country. So, it’s become very competitive, but at the same time, competition either helps you get better or go away.” The foundation that Mike Cervi laid is forever etched in sport’s archives. Over the past four decades he was honored as the PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year twice in 1983, 2001. His accomplishments inside and outside the arena don’t stop there. In 2003, he was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and just three years ago was honored as a Legend of ProRodeo. TAKING THE REINS When Mike began Cervi Championship Rodeo all those years ago, he always had the idea that it would be in the family for generations to come. He made his dream a reality when his sons Binion and Chase took over the stock contracting company nearly 20 years ago. It almost felt like fate for two brothers who were ingrained in the sport from their first steps. “I started out in rodeo with my brother and my dad. I started out going to rodeos as a little kid,” Chase said. “I was chasing out calves and steers, picking up flanks, feeding, sorting and just being a part of it. I fell in love with it like everybody does.

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said Binion Cervi. “He showed up at a Little Britches Rodeo and the bullfighter wasn’t there, so he stepped in. He was just a 14-year-old kid at the time and aspired to be a cowboy.” It didn’t hurt he had a handful of legendary cowboys in his corner from the jump. “Casey Tibbs was one of his heroes, he idolized Casey. He worked with Casey Tibbs and Gene Autry with the Wild West Show over at the World’s Fair in Belgium,” Binion said. “So, he really had the dream at the beginning. My brother Chase and I were just fortunate enough to be a part of the process into growing this company into what it is today.” LIGHTING THE TORCH Mike Cervi purchased the Beutler Brothers Rodeo Company in 1957 and took over the ranch near Sterling, Colo., and worked as a foreman at just 22 years old the following year. By 1964, he was buying cattle, including a herd from Oregon, in reportedly the biggest livestock sale ever in Colorado at the time. It was around then that he began producing rodeos. That was just the beginning of Cervi’s entrepreneurial endeavors. In 1974, Mike bought the Billy Minick Rodeo Company, which is now known as Cervi Championship Rodeo. “The sport of rodeo wouldn’t be where it is without those legendary stock contractors who came before us in my opinion,” Chase said. “Rodeo wasn’t as big and as developed as it is now back then. They really had to work to put on these shows for people out there. They are the foundation of the industry.” The Cervi family name quickly reached rodeo audiences from coast to coast. Mike produced many of the country’s biggest rodeos, including RodeoHouston, the National Western Stock Show & Rodeo in Denver and

“He showed up at a Little Britches Rodeo and the bullfighter wasn’t there, so he stepped in. He was just a 14-year-old kid at the time and aspired to be a cowboy.” – BINION CERVI, on his father’s start in rodeo

ProRodeo Sports News 1/24/2025

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