ProRodeo Sports News - 2021 Year End Edition

PASSAGES OF 2021

ROBERT “LEON” BAUERLE 7/17/1938-5/24/2021 Bauerle, a steer wrestler, qualified for the National Finals Rodeo seven times (1962-63, 1966-67, 1969, 1973 and 1975). The Texas native finished a career-best fifth in the world standings in 1967. Bauerle lived a long, eventful life with many talents. Over the course of his life, he was a two-time Texas golden gloves winner, had a rodeo-winning career for five decades, was an owner of western motor car sales for three decades, an owner, breeder, trainer of racehorses, and trained winning steer wrestling horse teams. LEO CAMARILLO 1/25/1946-12/30/2020 The five-time world champion and his brother, Jerold, revolutionized team roping as heelers. Leo won the all-around title in 1975 to go with four world titles in team roping (1972, 1973, 1975 and 1983). He qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 20 times (1968-86 and 1988). He won the NFR team roping average a PRCA-record six times (1968-71, 1980 and 1982). Camarillo created and perfected a polished style of heeling steers. GENE OLIVER “BUDDY” COCKRELL 6/10/1934-5/16/2020 Cockrell was the 1977 PRCA Steer Roping World Champion. He was inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2014 and the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame. In 2019, he was inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. Cockrell was a member of the Senior Steer Roping Association, which he helped start. Brenda Crowder, the 2019 PRCA Secretary of the Year and 2020 Timer of the Year, was a timer at the 2001 Wrangler NFR and secretary at the 2020 Wrangler NFR. She was also the secretary at the 2020 National Finals Steer Roping in Mulvane, Kan. She had been involved in PRCA rodeos since 1974. Her surviving daughter Shawna Ray was the 2019 PRCA Timer of the Year and a 2020-21 Wrangler NFR Timer. GEORGE DOAK 4/4/1936-4/27/2021 Bullfighter George Doak, who was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2000, twice fought bulls at the National Finals Rodeo (1971, 1977) and for many years worked the National High School Finals Rodeo and College National Finals Rodeo. Doak and fellow bullfighter Junior Meek were inducted into the Hall of Fame together. Doak and Meek were destined to be together. Both started their bullfighting careers as a means of trading entry fees for the bull riding, although Doak also entered bareback riding. Doak and Meek joined forces in 1963 to book rodeos as a team. That marked the first time two bullfighters worked as partners. The list of rodeos they worked, together and separately, reads like a “Who’s Who” in the rodeo world: Fort Worth, Texas, Pendleton, Ore., Kissimmee, Fla., Phoenix, San Francisco, Cheyenne, Wyo., and Denver. BERWIN “BUTTONS” HOWARD 6/13/1938-7/30/2021 Howard, a PRCA Gold Card member, qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in tie-down roping from 1967-70. He followed the path of junior, collegiate, amateur rodeos and the Rodeo Cowboys Association. Howard finished a career-best sixth in the 1969 world standings. After recovering, he finished building one of the first private indoor BRENDA CROWDER 2/17/1952-8/21/2021

arenas in Texas, and one of the first electronic barrier and team ropings with 600 to 800 teams beginning in the early 1970s. He also furnished roping calves for the NFR. CASSANDRA “SANDI” KENNEY 6/28/1944-5/28/2021 Cassandra (Sandi) Kenney, a former PRCA secretary, was the arena secretary at the 1996 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. Kenney graduated from El Camino High School in Sacramento and went on to O’Conner Hospital School of Nursing in San Jose, Calif., where she graduated and became a registered nurse on Aug. 1, 1966. CRAIG LATHAM 4/13/1967-10/8/2021 Craig Latham was a nine-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier in saddle bronc riding. He qualified for the Wrangler NFR in 1989-90, and 1992-98. He finished in the top five in the world standings six times and finished second in 1993. He also finished second in the Wrangler NFR average in 1993 and 1998. Latham joined the PRCA in 1987 and was married to his wife Lori for 31 years. LEE MARKHOLT 2/15/1939-10/3/2020 Lee Markholt, a PRCA Gold Card Member and 2020 inductee into the Idaho Rodeo Hall of Fame, finished third in the world standings at the 1970 National Finals Rodeo in bull riding and seventh in the average. Markholt got on his first ProRodeo bull at 17, bought his permit and although he didn’t fill it, he began competing as a pro in the RCA. He didn’t officially join the RCA until 1962 although he had been competing in RCA rodeos and saying he had his card since he was 18. PAUL MAYO 4/8/1942-1/24/2021 ProRodeo Hall of Famer Paul Mayo, whose style of bareback riding revolutionized the sport, passed away Jan. 24 in Stephenville, Texas. He was 78. A two-time bareback riding world champion and 12-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier, Mayo was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2010. Mayo won world titles in 1966 and 1970 and was the bareback riding reserve world champion three times (1965, 1967 and 1971). “He was just a happy-go-lucky guy in rodeo,” said his older brother, Don. “He liked to have a good time, and (rodeo) was just so easy for him. He was an ungodly natural athlete.” ProRodeo Hall of Famer Shawn Davis, a three-time saddle bronc riding world champion (1965, 1967-68) and longtime general manager of the NFR, was full of praise for his friend Paul. “More than anything he was a great athlete,” Davis said. “He had a great will to win, and one of his best attributes is he knew how to rodeo and how to organize, and he knew how to get to rodeos as good as anybody that I was ever around. He had the right personality to be a champion. He was determined. He wanted to enjoy his life. He would have a good time, but he knew where to cut it off to keep winning at the level he was winning at.” GARY LEE MCDANIEL 7/18/1961-5/20/2021 Gary McDaniel was a former PRCA saddle bronc rider and a fixture at the National Finals Rodeo tying in horses. McDaniel began his rodeo career as a saddle bronc rider after high school and reached the top 20 in the world standings multiple times. He was a chute boss and mentored and taught a new generation of saddle bronc riders. Although his contestant days were behind him, he stayed active in the circuit as a pickup man, chute boss, and mentor and

ProRodeo Sports News 12/17/2021

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