PRORODEO Sports News - March 7, 2025

Rodeo Clown JJ Harrison at the 2025 La Fiesta De Los Vaqueros at the Tucson Rodeo in Tucson, Ariz. PRCA Photo by Lara St Jacques

11 consecutive years (1963-73). He badly injured a shoulder in 1962, and pins were surgically inserted, which the proudly tough cowboy took out himself so he could ride while on an exhibition tour of Japan with Casey Tibbs. At times, the 5-foot-8, 150-pound cowboy supposedly went to bed with fishing weights attached to his feet so he could sleep each night with his feet out – in perfect bareback riding form. Vamvoras passed away Nov. 1, 1985, and was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2002 in Colorado Springs, Colo. Upon his death, his friend Winston LeJeune said in the PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS, “Clyde was one of the last of a breed, the free spirits of rodeo as it used to be. It would take lots of people a full week to tell all the stories they knew about Clyde. He picked a guitar and sang songs; could quote quite a lot of poetry; and was a heck of a philosopher.”

John Harrison and Greg Simas at the 2025 Wide Open Pro Rodeo in Ft. Pierce, Fla.

PRCA Photo by Tonya Evans

PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS 29