PRORODEO Sports News | January 24, 2025

TIME CAPSULE JIM BOB ALTIZER Master Roper

Altizer was world champion tie-down and steer roper

BY PRCA STAFF J im Bob Altizer was skilled with a rope, no matter what event he was competing in throughout his illustrious PRORODEO career. He grew up on his parents’ ranch 11 miles northeast of Del Rio, Texas, and was holding a rope from the time he was a small child. Altizer started his rodeo career at a young age and won numerous junior rodeo titles before embarking on a career that spanned two decades. In 1949, at age 17, he won the Texas state championship in breakaway roping, and the next year was the top junior tie-down roper in the country. At age 27, Altizer won the 1959 tie-down roping world championship, and spent the majority of his career ranked in the top 10 in the world in tie-down roping. He was widely regarded as one of the top match ropers in the world for many years, as he battled Dean Oliver throughout the 1960s and Phil Lyne in the ’70s. Altizer was also known as one of rodeo’s greatest steer ropers, winning a world title in the event in 1967. He went on to serve as steer roping representative for the PRCA and was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in the inaugural class of 1979. But the cowboy nicknamed “Jingle Bob,” born May 5, 1932, never forgot the start that junior rodeo gave him. For years after retirement, he conducted free youth roping schools and clinics on his ranch near Del Rio. Kids were always welcome at Altizer’s place to practice their roping skills or run some barrels. “We remember a great cowboy like Jim Bob Altizer, whose world roping title gave him the chance to invest in the next generation,” Texas Gov. Rick Perry said in 2009, 12 years after Altizer’s death. In addition to being an outstanding contributor to rodeo at all levels, Altizer also ran 9,000 Angora goats on his 33,000-acre spread. When it was time to shear the goats, he said “It took two weeks to round the goats up and get them penned, and another 6-7 days to clip their hair.” Altizer married Minnie Weathersbee in 1953, and the couple had two children – son, Mack, and daughter, Sherry. Mack would go on to become a stock contractor, carrying on the family’s rodeo tradition. Jim Bob Altizer died Dec. 12, 1997, in Del Rio, at the age of 65 after battling cancer.

Jim Bob Altizer poses with horse, above, and with his 1959 Calf Roping World Champ- ionship saddle.

DeVere Helfrich photos

ProRodeo Sports News 1/24/2025

ProRodeo.com

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