PRORODEO Sports News March 2026 Digital Edition

as a cowboy riding a bison, a horse jumping a car and even people jumping out of air planes. Edwin’s wife, Jesse, also made teacups to give away as souvenirs to attendees. “In 1927, we had specialty acts and swag,” said Kim Sutton, Jim Sutton’s daughter-in-law and wife of Sutton Rodeo

JULIE AND JIM SUTTON

President Steve Sutton. “That’s just like today. So yes, it’s been 100 years but that was already happen ing in the 1920s.” Edwin Sutton, Jim Sutton’s grandfather, saw potential in the rodeo business and sought to grow the company from a family pastime to a profit center. He quickly partnered with George Fairbank and began a successful touring rodeo before the Great Depression slowed operations until the 1940s. Jim’s father, James H. Sutton Sr., launched the next iteration of the firm in the 1950s by partnering with fellow South Dakotan Erv Kor kow to form Sutton-Korkow stock. Sutton-Korkow was one of the first contractors to join the Rodeo Cowboys Association – predecessor to the PRCA – and in 1959 hauled bucking stock to the inaugural Na

Photo Courtesy of Sutton Rodeo Company

tional Finals Rodeo in Dallas, Texas. “I still run into people, and the most popular comment about grand pa is that he was a good person, but he was always positive,” Steve Sutton said of James Sutton Sr. “He never ran anybody down. I never heard him raise his voice, never. He’s just one of those people who comes to your mind who was a good ol’ boy.” James H. Sutton Sr.’s son, affec tionately known as Jim, was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2020. The 90-year-old South Dako tan was raised in the stock contract ing business, but it wasn’t his only option. The Minneapolis Lakers – now the Los Angeles Lakers – selected Sutton, a South Dakota State University grad uate, with the 65th overall pick in the 1957 NBA Draft. He attended the team’s preseason camp but ultimately

Jim Sutton said of knowing his calling from a young age. “You didn’t have to worry about anything to do. It was all right there.” Going all in James and Jim formally partnered in 1968 and launched Sutton Rodeo Company, transforming the contrac tor into one of the top firms in the PRCA. “They went out first and bought some horses and tried to increase the bloodlines,” Steve Sutton said. “The cowboys loved (James Sutton Sr.), too. And back in the early days, the contractors weren’t loved by contes tants. They weren’t enemies, but they were dueling each other. Now, as the world’s changed, we’re trying to help them make a good living.” James Sutton set the moral fiber of Sutton Rodeo, which continues to this day. In 1982, he was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, and he also received an award of merit from the RCA in 1970 for his contributions to the sport. “Whether it was a committeeman or the waitress at the table when we were in town, he just had something about him that everybody was attract ed to him and had a good impression of him,” Steve Sutton said. “But the cowboys really backed him.” James Sutton eventually passed management responsibilities to his son, Jim. But he remained intimate ly involved in PRORODEO until his death on Feb. 1, 1991. Jim’s wife, Julie, also took on a lot

decided to return home to work on the family ranch with his father,

James Sutton Sr., and grand father, Edwin Sutton.

3 GENERATIONS OF SUTTONS: JAMES, JIM AND STEVE Photo Courtesy of Sutton Rodeo Company

“It just gave you something

to think about,”

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