ProRodeo Sports News - February 19, 2021

CATCHING UP WITH ... SYLVESTER MAYFIELD Silver & Gold

Tie-down roper was timed-event trailblazer BY MATT NABER I n 1985, Sylvester Mayfield became the first African American to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in a timed event. But ask him and he’ll say a more significant day in his life came 35 years later. The NewMexico cowboy’s career went from hopping trains in order to sneak rides on horses to winning some of the PRCA’s biggest competitions. Now, the family name is synonymous with ProRodeo. Yet, it’s a day from his personal life that resonates far more to him. Mayfield lacked family support in his initial rodeo endeavors. So he took it upon himself to follow through on rodeos, including ignoring his parents’ rules. “When I was a kid, my folks didn’t have much money or much to do with horses, so after school I’d come home and the train left at 4 p.m. so I’d hop on it to ride it to the stockyards and ride people’s horses bareback,” Mayfield said. “I would get spankings for going to the sale barns, but I went anyway.” The 10-year-old aspiring cowboy wasn’t as sneaky as he thought. “One day, this old man saw me doing it, and I didn’t know he was watching me,” Mayfield said. “He had an office at the stockyards, and I’d ride his studs every day after he left with a rope around their neck. He lived in town and knew I was doing it. So one day he left and doubled back and acted like he was real mad, so I apologized. Then, he said, ‘If you’re going to ride them, you have to help feed and care for them.’ He gave me a job and taught me how to ride and rope.” It was a turning point in Sylvester’s life. “I started out riding bulls when I was 14, and I could really ride them,” Mayfield said. “By the time I was 16, I quit riding bulls since I was afraid of them.” From there, it was a blur of amateur rodeos and roping matches with highlights such as beating ProRodeo Hall of Famer Roy Cooper twice and winning the state high school bull riding title in 1970 and all-around in 1971. In the 1970s, Mayfield left the ProRodeo scene for polo. He returned to ProRodeo in the early 1980s and made ProRodeo history with his 1985 NFR qualification. “It’s a big deal really, not many people know he was the first African American in tie-down roping (at the NFR) and it set the pace for others for sure, myself included,” said Sylvester’s son, Shad, the reigning tie-down TRAIN HOPPING

roping world champion. “Everyone in rodeo feels welcome on the pro circuit.” Sylvester is laid back about his 1985 milestone. “I kind of opened it up for the calf roping,” he said. “But it’s always been like that for me. I never thought about the color deal.” Sylvester was more focused on learning from cowboys he looked up to, such as ProRodeo Hall of Famer and three-time World Champion Tie- down Roper Glen Franklin, who lived about 50 miles away in House, N.M. “He was my idol,” Sylvester said. “He told me I could come to his house and he would help me rope when I was in high school, and then one summer I stayed half the summer and roped with him. That really helped me. He had some roping schools and I helped put those on, too. I was always a hustler since I didn’t have any help, but I was a hard worker and good with horses. I would work just to get to rope.” Working and networking took a young Sylvester to Oklahoma where Karen Martin photo Shortly after becoming the first African American to compete at the NFR in a timed event, Sylvester “Silver” Mayfield goes in for a catch during the 1986 rodeo in San Jose, Calif.

ProRodeo Sports News 2/19/2021

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