ProRodeo Sports News - August 4, 2023

SHORT ROUND Association addresses network outage at its headquarters PRCA Statement

COURTESY WPRA With heavy hearts, the WPRA announced the passing of Sherry (Combs) Johnson. Johnson of Addington, Okla., passed away Aug. 2 at the Duncan (Okla.) Regional Hospital after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Johnson recently completed the family trifecta on July 15, when she joined the ProRodeo Hall of Fame alongside her world champion horse Star Plaudit “Red,” who earned induction in 2017 and her sister Florence Youree, who was inducted as part of the Class of 2019 in the notable category for the WPRA. During Johnson’s WPRA career she qualified for 12 National Finals Rodeos, the first coming in 1959 at the first GRA (predecessor to the WPRA) Finals in Clayton, N.M., and the last in 1991 under the bright lights of Las Vegas, a span of four decades (1959-68, 1970, 1991). She won her first WPRA world title in 1961 in the all-around category, but the highlight of her career would come in 1962 when she won the barrel racing world title aboard Star Plaudit “Red.” Star Plaudit holds a very unique record in the world of Johnson O n the morning of July 20, the PRCA was hit with a ransomware attack that encrypted our data and shut down all our servers. The attack was launched by a well-organized criminal enterprise that is believed to be outside of the U.S. The PRCA did not comply with their ransom request and quickly put together a plan to restore systems, processes, and lost files. We have seen no evidence that any data was exported. Because of the attack, the PRCA was unable to post daysheets, update standings, stock stats and some results on our website. Despite the complications this presented, by Monday morning July 24, PROCOM was taking calls and manually entering contestants. Rodeo secretaries also manually submitted rodeo results, executed trades and stock draws and as a result payouts for rodeos began on Tuesday, July 25. Daily communication through Constant Contact was sent to members and those updates were also posted on prorodeo.com.

professional rodeo, one that is not likely to ever be duplicated. The sorrel gelding won two world championships in the sport in a single year and contributed to a third, at the age of 12. Red carried his owner Johnson to the GRA World title in the barrel racing and close family friend Tom Nesmith to the RCA world title in the steer wrestling and helped the Oklahoman also claim the RCA All-Around championship, all in 1962. While Red is considered Johnson’s once-in a-lifetime horse, she also trained six other horses that carried her to the NFR and an additional three that carried other competitors to the “super bowl” of rodeo. Johnson gave back to the WPRA serving on the Board of Directors from 1963-1971, including a stint as the vice president. She was named Coca-Cola Woman of the Year in 1997 and was inducted into the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City in 2005. Johnson would have turned 85 on Aug. 16. Funeral arrangements are currently being planned and will be released as soon as that information is made available. There was also a voice message changed daily on the PROCOM entry line on what was opening and closing that day. Within 11 days, PRCA staff along with consultants, were able to rebuild the servers and we’re 95 percent restored. Results and standings are being populated in the servers and the importance of getting these items back on track is understood. Many of those items are being manually entered into the secretary system to repopulate those results. That process is ongoing. By Monday, Aug. 7, PROCOM is expected to be back on track and caught up on entries. “We would like to thank local rodeo secretaries, rodeo committees, and our rodeo IT, rodeo administration and our staff that persevered through very trying times,” PRCA CEO Tom Glause said. “We would like to thank the members for their patience and bearing with us as we resorted to manually taking entries and processing rodeos,” Glause said.

Hall of Famer Johnson passes at 84

ONLINE: For more ProRodeo events and full results, go online at www.prorodeo.com

ProRodeo Sports News 8/4/2023

ProRodeo.com

22