PRORODEO Sports News - June 1, 2026

BY KELSI OPAT, SPECIAL TO PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS ONE MORE RUN AT 65, DONNIE LANDIS ISN’T DONE YET At 18, he earned his PRCA card at the San Jose Firefighters Rodeo. He went on to work legendary events, includ ing the Pendleton Round-Up, Rodeo Houston, and the Calgary Stampede.

D onnie Landis will tell you there are two types of ‘old school.’ The first type is someone who refuses to evolve, even at the risk of others’ safety. The second is someone with drive, determination and a big heart. Landis is the second type. At 65 years old, the Idaho-based barrelman, rodeo clown, stock con tractor and founder of the Junior Bull Riders, is, by most reasonable mea sures, a man who should be winding down. But not Landis. “I’m just as spry as I was at 35,” Landis said. “It’s different when you’re in your 20s and 30s. You can heal faster, you’re in somewhat good shape, and when you’re older, you have to take care of yourself in a dif ferent way. You’re wiser.” That drive to keep improving has a target. Landis has one goal left on his list: to work the Wrangler Nation al Finals Rodeo one more time. He knows the odds aren’t in his favor – committees booked for the next five years, a body that demands strategy over raw athleticism and a generation of bullfighters who aren’t his peers. But he’s in the gym, he’s studying the angles, and he’s not remotely ready to walk away. It’s the kind of determination that has defined him from the very begin ning. Landis is a fourth-generation rodeo cowboy. His father, Bill Landis, was a

rodeo producer, clown and bullfight er, and his mother, Doreen Landis, was a rodeo secretary. Landis worked his first rodeo at just 12 years old, stepping in for his father’s injured bullfighting partner. Having Bill’s trust meant a great deal to young Donnie. “(My dad) said, ‘If one gets me down, I want you to get him off me. That’s all you have to worry about,’” Landis recalled. After graduating from high school, Landis turned down a full-ride foot ball scholarship at San Jose State University and chose rodeo instead.

He reached the NFR in 1993 and 1995, was an alternate in 1997, and then – after a 12-year gap – returned as an alternate in 2009. Most peo ple call that a successful career, but Landis calls it motivation. Ask Landis what he did this past winter, and he’ll tell you he studied barrel impact: the physics of how a 1,700-pound bull meets a steel cylin der with a man inside. He’s building

An enormous bull chases Landis in the arena. All photos for this story are courtesy of Donnie Landis

JUNE 1, 2026 PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS DIGITAL MAGAZINE 31