PRORODEO Sports News - March 7, 2025

TIME CAPSULE

JOVIAL CHAMP CLYDE VAMVORAS ENJOYED LIFE AS A RODEO COWBOY

By PRCA Staff

ProRodeo Hall of Famer Clyde Vamvoras, above, had a 64-point ride on Big Bend Rodeo’s Shawnee to split third in Round 1 of the 1964 National Finals Rodeo in Los Angeles. DeVere Helfrich photo

F ree-spirited Clyde Vamvoras had an unusual start to his ProRodeo Hall of Fame career: he paid a neighbor 25 cents a head so he could ride his bareback horses. That was a big commitment for the 13-year old boy from Lake Charles, La., who worked a paper route to earn money. It paid off, though, as Vamvoras was

a two-time world champion bareback rider (1967-68). Born Jan. 4, 1942, but without a rodeo influence in his life, Vamvoras still had the itch to be a cowboy. He con vinced his parents to buy him a bus ticket to Colorado so he could com pete in a junior rodeo at age 15, then

cashed in the ticket and hitchhiked. In 1960, he won the Louisiana high school all-around championship and a year later was a member of the Rodeo Cowboys Association. The jovial Vamvoras was usually the life of the party, but he also quali fied for the National Finals Rodeo

28 PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS