ProRodeo Sports News - April 3, 2020

have to live up to something more than what you used to, but after that it got back to normal.” A rematch between Leslie andWolfman was arranged one year later in Central Point, but this time Wolfman got the better of the Washington cowboy. “I over-rode him and went too hard, and he beat me around the corner,” Leslie chuckled. “I got a split lip, so I guess we’re one-for-one now.” Leslie’s friends and neighbors knew he was a bull rider, but his perfect ride didn’t impact his personal life too much. “The ride overshadowed my other accomplishments,” Leslie said. From 1985-2000 Leslie earned $105,102 and won Columbia River Circuit bull riding titles in 1991 and 1993. He qualified for the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo in 1988, 1991 and 1993. Thanks to also competing in saddle bronc riding, Leslie won the St. Paul (Ore.) Rodeo all-around title in 1991. “That guy coulda, shoulda, woulda gone to the NFR a few times or been a world champ, but everyone has their own situation,” said Cody Custer, a ProRodeo Hall of Famer who was a rookie the same year as Leslie. “You never know what causes a guy with that kind of talent to not have a flourishing career. Some of it is just luck in staying healthy.” LIFE CHANGES COURSE Leslie’s life changed direction in 2001 when he fell asleep at the wheel and was ejected from his truck, leaving the cowboy paralyzed from the waist down. “They think it rolled over me,” Leslie said. “I was in three feet of water and pulled myself out, and then they found me.” Leslie learned to take care of himself during physical rehabilitation at St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute in Spokane, Wash. “When I came home, my life had turned upside down,” Leslie said. “You have to figure out what to do and come to terms with it.” ProRodeo Hall of Famer Mike Beers pointed Leslie to a specialist who was having success in getting people to walk again. “I got to where I could stand with a walker and go 30 feet, but it’s not functional,” Leslie said. THE GREAT OUTDOORS Necessity is the mother of invention. That rang true for Leslie, as the great outdoors beckoned, but he was restricted to his wheelchair. “I’ve always liked to hunt and fish, and I didn’t like not being able to get to where I needed to get to, so I started to rebuild them (wheelchairs) and get them into 4-wheel drive,” Leslie said. “I went back to the drawing board a lot of times before I got something that would work.” Before his accident, Leslie had some mechanical experience but not to the extent that he does now. “I didn’t know I could do it,” Leslie said. “I wasn’t one to be afraid to tear into anything and figure it out.” Word spread about Leslie’s wheelchair. He sent his chair to a father in Alabama who had been taking his son turkey hunting and fishing by carrying him on his back. Since, Leslie has built three or four more modified chairs with no charge for the labor, only the parts. “A lot of guys in my situation don’t have the money unless they have good insurance,” Leslie said. “I know what it’s like to not be able to afford it, and some don’t have the means to tear something apart and build it.” More recently with some help from Bikers for Christ, Leslie donated a handicap-accessible van to Youth Outdoors Unlimited in memory of his deceased friend Sheldon Ayres, a bareback rider. Youth Outdoors Unlimited is an organization that helps kids with disabilities and life- threatening illnesses go hunting or fishing. “He was never an arrogant kind of guy, he was really down to earth,” Custer said. “You can judge a book by its cover, but you don’t know what’s inside his heart and mind, and it’s cool to see what he’s doing with it. “Every generation has a different kind of respect for the guys they’ve rodeoed with, and he’s a guy that earned everyone’s respect. To see him do that makes me really proud.”

Photo courtesy of Wade Leslie Former bull rider Wade Leslie has built several modified wheelchairs for others, charging only for the cost of the parts.

Larry Schwartzkopf photo Wade Leslie competed on Camp Tender at the Horse Heaven Roundup in Kennewick, Wash., in 1993.

ProRodeo Sports News 4/3/2020

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