ProRodeo Sports News - February 19, 2021

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Dightman, Pickett were pioneers for African American cowboys Path to Follow PRCA ProRodeo file photo WORLD CHAMPS: Bull rider Charlie Sampson, right, who idolized and traveled with Myrtis Dightman, became the first African American to win the PRCA bull riding world championship in 1982.

BY TRACY RENCK M yrtis Dightman is considered the Jackie Robinson of modern rodeo. The Crockett, Texas, cowboy was the first African American bull rider to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in 1966. Dightman’s rodeo path was riddled with adversity. He endured insults and prejudice while competing during the civil rights movement. “I never really had any problems,” Dightman said in the Aug. 28, 2015, edition of ProRodeo Sports News . “I was just an easy-going guy and I never had problems because I was with a bunch of guys like Larry Mahan and Bobby Berger. Guys like that took

care of me.”

Dightman was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall

of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 2016. He was a trailblazer for African American cowboys like Charlie Sampson, a fellow ProRodeo Hall of Famer and world champion bull rider, and FredWhitfield, an eight-time world champ and ProRodeo Hall of Famer. Whitfield won seven tie-down roping world titles (1991, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005) and an all-around crown (1999). Tie-down roper Shad Mayfield joined Sampson andWhitfield as African American PRCA world champions when he captured a gold buckle in 2020.

PRCA ProRodeo file photo PIONEER: ProRodeo Hall of Famer Bill Pickett, born in 1870, is credited with founding bulldogging or steer wrestling, as it is now known.

ProRodeo Sports News 2/19/2021

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