PRORODEO Sports News - June 6, 2025

TIME CAPSULE

REMEMBERING PRORODEO HALL OF FAMER LECILE HARRIS J ust over five years ago, the rodeo world lost a legend. His specialty acts included a baseball act, piano act, magic act, robot, taxi, By PRCA Staff

emergency replacement at Sardis, Miss., and used shoe polish and lipstick from the local drug store to prepare. Harris fought bulls for 36 years, and when he was injured at age 52, getting picked up by a bull and taken through a fence at the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo in 1989, he pondered his next move. He returned to rodeo life as a clown in October that year. “I’m doing what I want to do,” Har ris said in the May 11, 2005, issue of PRORODEO Sports News. “I’m working the rodeos I want to work, the ones I enjoy. And, when I get to where I’m not enjoying it and I can’t get a little golf in on the side, then I’ll quit.” Harris’ talents weren’t restricted to the rodeo arena. Over the years, he had character parts in movies such as “Walking Tall: Final Chapter,” “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings,” “On the Road,” and “The Last Days of Jesse James.” He also spent five years on the syndicated TV show “Hee Haw.”

shootout, fiddle act and whip act. Harris published a book of short sto ries, titled “Lecile: This isn’t my first rodeo” in 2016. Harris’ style was influenced by the work of several comedians he grew up admiring, including Emmett Kelly, Red Skelton, W.C. Fields, and Laurel and Hardy. The painted face he used in his act has been part of his per sona since 1955 when he was asked to serve as an

PRORODEO Hall of Famer Lecile Harris, dubbed the “Dean of Rodeo Clowns/Bullfighters,” passed away in his sleep in Jackson, Miss., Feb. 13, 2020. Harris, who lived in Collierville, Tenn., was 83. The last rodeo Harris worked was the Dixie National Rodeo in Jackson, Miss., Feb. 6-12, working the night before he passed. Harris worked the Dixie National Rodeo 35 times. Harris got his start in rodeo as a bull rider and then a fill-in bull fighter while still in high school. He evolved into one of the sport’s most respected funnymen over a career that spanned more than half a century. He was PRCA Clown of the Year in 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1996. He was inducted into the PRORODEO Hall of Fame in 2007 in Colorado Springs, Colo. At his peak, Harris performed at more than 100 rodeos each year, his timing, inventiveness and classic style was the envy of his contemporaries. He became well known for his signature end to a performance - The Original Bulldancer -

in which he would dance with a bull from the buck ing stock.

PRORODEO Hall of Famer Lecile Harris, dubbed the “Dean of Rodeo Clowns/ Bullfighters,” performs

at the Pikes Peak Or Bust Rodeo in 1993 in Colorado Springs, Colo. PRCA photo by Dan Hubbell

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