ProRodeo Sports News - Feb. 21, 2020

bullfighter while still in high school. He evolved into one of the sport’s most respected funnymen over a career that spanned more than half a century. He was PRCA Clown of the Year in 1992 and 1994-96. At his peak, Harris performed at more than 100 rodeos a year, his timing, inventiveness and classic style the envy of his contemporaries. He became well known for his signature end to a performance –The Original Bulldancer – in which he would dance with a bull from the bucking stock. His specialty acts included a baseball act, piano act, magic act, robot, taxi, shootout, fiddle act and whip act. Harris published a book, titled “Lecile: This isn’t my first rodeo” in 2016. The book is made up of short stories. Harris’ style was influenced by the work of several comedians he grew up admiring, including

getting picked up by a bull and taken through a fence at the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo in 1989, he pondered his next move. He returned as a clown in October that year. “I’m doing what I want to do,” Harris said in the May 11, 2005, issue of ProRodeo Sports News. “I’m working the rodeos I want to work, the ones I enjoy. And, when I get to where I’m not enjoying it and I can’t get a little golf in on the side, then I’ll quit.” Justin Rumford, the 2012-19 PRCA Clown of the Year, had fond memories of Harris. “He was one of my favorite clowns ever, and

besides that, he was a cool guy,” Rumford said. “Growing up in rodeo from the time I was little until I started clowning, every time he did the baseball act, I laughed, and I must have seen it 150 times. Lecile was special because when he would walk in the arena, he could make a first-time rodeo fan feel like they had known him forever. Lecile was the kind of guy who you didn’t have to know to feel like you were family. He had a special way of drawing you in. The way he talked, his stories, the way he presented himself was just a talent, a gift that nobody could recreate.” John Harrison, a multi-time PRCA Comedy Act of the Year winner, concurred with Rumford. “The guy was not only a legend but just a good guy,” Harrison said. “He helped me back before I ever started clowning just with my acts. He truly wanted success for the young guys. His presence owned the arena. His timing was unbelievable, and every rodeo clown could learn something from him. He was one-of-a-kind.”

John Moon photo Lecile Harris puts on his makeup before a rodeo in an undated photo. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2007.

Emmett Kelly, Red Skelton, W.C. Fields, and Laurel and Hardy. The painted face he used in his act was part of his persona since 1955 when he was asked to serve as an emergency replacement at Sardis, Miss., and used shoe polish and lipstick from the local drug store to prepare. The multi-talented Harris, who was 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, was a football player at the University of Tennessee-Martin, a session drummer in the Memphis area during the 1950s and early ‘60s, and had acted in television and film. He spent seven years on the TV series “Hee Haw” and appeared in the films “Walking Tall: The Final Chapter,” “The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James” and “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings.” Harris fought bulls for 36 years, and when he was injured at age 52,

John Moon photo The multi-talented Lecile Harris, seen giving a high five to a fan in this undated photo, published a book “Lecile: This isn’t my first rodeo.”

ProRodeo Sports News 2/21/2020

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