PRORODEO Sports News March 2026 Digital Edition

NO SIGNS OF STOPPING SUTTON RODEO LOOKING TO THE FUTURE AS IT CELEBRATES 100-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

By ALEX DODD • MEDIA REPORTER

Alex has worked in sports media for over a decade and most recently served as a sports editor in Rapid City, S.D. Alex is a proud Clemson University alum.

R odeo has changed dras tically over the last 100 years. But in many ways, the sport doesn’t look too dissimilar to its humble begin nings. This year, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association celebrates 90 years as the largest and oldest sanctioning body of professional rodeo. The PRCA started as the Cowboy Turtles Association during the Boston Gar den Rodeo in 1936, when cowboys banded together to ensure fair prize money, equality in judging and hon est advertising of the sport. But before the formation of the CTA, rodeo was already a way of life in the American West. In Sully County, S.D., at the Sutton Ranch, rodeo was a family tradition. On Sundays, Edwin and James Sutton welcomed friends from the surrounding area to their rodeos, which started in 1926. A century later, the fourth, fifth

THE SUTTON FAMILY

PRCA photo by Clay Guardipee

Early Days The first rodeo on the Sutton ranch in the river hills of Sully Coun ty in 1926 sought to see which local ranch had the best cowboys. But by the following year, en tertainment for spectators became central to the operation. Those early rodeos featured specialty acts such

and sixth generations of his family are still producing world-class events as the Sutton Rodeo Company. “What’s most special is that the family was all involved and all inter ested,” ProRodeo Hall of Famer Jim Sutton said. “It makes it pretty easy when what’s turning out is happen ing the way you wanted it to.”

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