ProRodeo Sports News - April 14, 2023

MEMORIAM BOBBY CLARK

Entertainer Bobby Clark a 1997 Hall of Famer Legend Passes

Clark

BY TRACY RENCK T he ProRodeo world has lost a hall of famer in rodeo clown/barrelman Bobby Clark. Clark passed away April 13. He was 93. Clark and his brother Gene were inducted together into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs in 1997. From the 1940s through the 1970s, these ProRodeo Hall of Famers set the standard for rodeo entertainment, though they got their start as contestants. Both Clarks competed in tie-down roping while Gene also did steer wrestling and Bobby competed in bareback riding, but Bobby was best remembered as a clown and Gene as a bullfighter. Major past rodeos, such as the first National Finals Rodeo in Dallas and rodeos at Madison Square Garden in New York City and at the Boston Garden, were no laughing matter, unless you were Gene and Bobby Clark. “I was only 18 and not very big, roping against 6-(foot)- something guys, and we roped big ol’ calves and I wasn’t doing any good,” Bobby Clark said in an April 5, 2019 ProRodeo Sports News article. “So, when I came home, I said I’ll give it a year, and if I don’t do good, I’ll do something else.” Bobby Clark was born in Seminole, Okla., on March 24, 1930. The Dust Bowl drove their family out of Oklahoma and over to California’s central valley. Gene served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was a player on the Seattle Rainiers, a minor leaguer baseball team. After the war, baseball reminded him too much of the military, so he opted for the freedom of rodeo and performed his first clown act in 1947. “The team had him on contract,” Bobby Clark said. “He said, ‘They told me when to get up and go to bed. So, I’m going to do something different.’ So, he started fighting bulls.” One year later, Bobby joined him. “He said he got a job to fight bulls at the rodeo, and he asked if I wanted to work the barrel for $25 per perf. I said you bet I’ll do that,” Bobby Clark said. “I was making a dollar an hour picking apples, so that was a heck of a boost. “I was scared to death of the crowd. I was bashful when I was young, and three years later I was at the coliseum in L.A. with 100,000 people.” Gene, who died on June 4, 2005, at the age of 79, started as a bullfighter, complete with a Spanish-style cape. Bobby joined the act shortly after graduating high school. The first rodeo Bobby worked had future ProRodeo Hall of Famer Slim Pickens in the stands. Pickens was a well-known roughstock contestant turned bullfighter who later went on to be a movie star. “It amazed him (Pickens),” Bobby Clark said, adding that he and Pickens worked a few rodeos together. “He was quite a guy and a good clown and bullfighter and was good to work with.” The brothers raised the bar in rodeo comedy with some of the most innovative acts of their era. Gene was selected by contestants to be the “clowning bull-baiter” for the first National Finals Rodeo in 1959. “We got along, we had to since we were partners,” Bobby Clark said. “We had an orchard in California and lived there. We did everything together. Best friends fight and brothers do too – but we were together for 30 years.”

The Clarks were known for creating innovative acts such as a disappearing act, Cannon Capers, the hearse act, the magical box, and Lord Beaverbook’s Roman Riding Mules. “I’d think about it (a new act) every time I’d go to the bathroom,” Bobby Clark said. The Clarks were often spotted at Madison Square Garden, the Boston Garden, Houston, Fort Worth, Texas, Pendleton, Ore., Cheyenne, Wyo., and San Antonio. They performed in Calgary, Alberta, Mexico and Cuba. Of course, all those years of dodging bulls came with their share of injuries. Bobby punctured his lung twice, broke all his ribs and both arms. The brothers continued their routine until 1978 when they parted ways. Gene moved to Oregon and Bobby stayed in Oklahoma. Although they were done rodeoing together, they still made appearances individually for many years. Clem McSpadden wanted Bobby Clark to work the Old Timers Rodeo. “I said, ‘You don’t expect me to fight bulls, do you?’ He said, yeah. I said, ‘Well, if you got any 70-year-old bulls I will,” Bobby Clark laughed. Although he was retired from rodeo, Bobby wasn’t fully retired from working. He worked as a feed salesman for 14 years while ranching in Oklahoma until officially retiring in 1993. He also served on the board for the Rodeo Historical Society at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City for nine years, two as president in the mid-1990s. Michael Burn photo Bobby Clark keeps a bull at bay while performing his teeter-totter act at a rodeo during his legendary career.

ProRodeo Sports News 4/14/2023

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