ProRodeo Sports News - April 3, 2020

IN MEMORIAM 1937-2020

Carol Miller photo

since 1976. Award-winning stock contractor part of Wrangler NFR since 1976 Roy Honeycutt Roy Honeycutt of Honeycutt Rodeo Company talks to the crowd from horseback in the arena in Yuma, Ariz., in 2011.

BY TRACY RENCK L ongtime, award-winning stock contractor Roy

Jerry Honeycutt understands what his dad meant to the sport. “In the rodeo business, tradition means a lot,” Jerry said. “We as a younger generation got to step in and realize the fruits of guys like my dad, Walt Alsbaugh, Harry Vold, Cotton Rosser, Mike Cervi, Neal Gay and guys I’ve missed who came before us, they deserve a lot of credit. My dad started from nothing and established a lot of stuff. He did it on his own, and I’m proud of him for that fact. I’m also proud of him raising a great family in the midst of all of it.” Jerry, his younger brother, Scott, and younger sister, Janet, all worked in the rodeo business with their dad. They still help Jerry with the company. In 1886, Honeycutt’s great-grandparents homesteaded to Alamosa fromNew York. Virginia was the daughter of Walt and Alice Alsbaugh. Walt was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1990 as a stock contractor. Virginia’s brother, Art Alsbaugh, and his wife, Linda, were the recipients of the 2012 Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award. “I was involved with my father-in-law, and I appreciated that so much,” Roy said. Jerry said Roy’s start in becoming a stock contractor came fromWalt Alsbaugh. “He (Roy) had a truck and trailer, but he didn’t own any bulls or

Honeycutt passed away March 25 from kidney failure. He was 82. In October, a lifetime of commitment to the rodeo industry earned Roy and his late wife, Virginia, the 2019 PRCA Donita Barnes Contract Personnel Lifetime Achievement Award. Virginia, the longtime matriarch of the rodeo-oriented Honeycutt family, passed away Dec. 1, 2018. She was 76. Roy and Virginia started the Honeycutt Rodeo Company in 1976 in Alamosa, Colo. They traveled across the country and the world producing rodeos – every performance held on a Sunday included cowboy church. Their son, Jerry, has owned the Honeycutt Rodeo Company since 2012. “My dad was happy-go-lucky and had a knack to get along with people,” Jerry said. “He was a good people person.” The Donita Barnes Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Roy at the PRCAAwards Banquet in Las Vegas, Dec. 4. “I don’t know what to say,” said Roy, when notified he was receiving the award. “This is emotional. It is great to receive this honor. I’m very excited. This is a big deal.” The Honeycutt Rodeo Company have been one of the few rodeo stock contractors to have been a part of almost every National Finals Rodeo

ProRodeo Sports News 4/3/2020

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