ProRodeo Sports News - February 2, 2024

an interview with the Sports News, Schneider said he saddled a bronc during afternoon recess one day and it “bucked out across the school grounds. The kids scattered like quail and the principal (a fine man and lifelong friend) scolded me and said, ‘John, don’t bring one of those things to school again. So, my broncs and I did not go to school anymore.” With money he saved from rodeo winnings, Schneider bought a 30-acre ranch near Salinas, Calif., where he ran cattle. He also became a government brand inspector, a job he held from 1947-69 until he retired and began writing poetry and short stories about horses, cowboys, and the Old West. He died at age 77 in 1982 and was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1992. Frank Schneider always said it was “probably environment” that got him into a career in professional rodeo because his older brother, Johnie, was already a top hand when he started out riding calves. What carried him to the elite level of the sport all resided within him. His talent. His competitive fire. His hard work. The Schneiders were the first brothers to win world championships in rodeo with Frank earning bull riding titles in 1933 and 1934 and a bareback riding championship in 1935 while Johnie – eight years his elder – had three bull riding championships (1929 30 and tied in 1932) and the 1931 all-around title. The Schneider brothers and Smokey Snyder dominated bull riding in their era, winning every world title from 1929-37. Frank Schneider started working for stock contractor Cuthbert “Cuff” Burrell in Hanford, Calif., when he was 13 years old, helping with the bucking stock and racehorses at the ranch, becoming a skilled all-around hand. While he had his greatest success in bull riding, including four wins at California Rodeo Salinas and another at Prescott, Ariz., he was a threat to win in any one of a half dozen events. Schneider won the bulldogging championship against an international field at the 1936 Royal Easter Show in Sydney, Australia. In 1932, he set a world record of 2.5 seconds in the steer decorating at the Los Angeles Rodeo that stood for many years. And his proudest achievement was winning the saddle bronc riding title at the inaugural Grand National Rodeo in San Francisco in 1941, because the win came “against the best in the sport,” and on a Harry Rowell horse, Starlight, that had not been ridden. Frank was born Jan. 28, 1912, in Madera, Calif., and passed away March 31, 1983, in Los Banos, Calif. SCHNEIDER JOINS BROTHER IN HALL IN 2012

ABOVE: Frank Schneider on Joe Louis, July 1941 at Klamath Buckeroo Days in Klamath Falls, Ore. BELOW: ProRodeo Hall of Famer Johnie Schneider rides Sonora in 1929. That year he won his first bull riding world championship. DeVere Helfrich

and PRCA ProRodeo file photos

ProRodeo Sports News 2/2/2024

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