ProRodeo Sports News - Jan. 24, 2020

CATCHING UP WITH ... JIM HOUSTON

Gripping Career

Photo courtesy Jim Houston Jim Houston, left, competed alongside many of ProRodeo’s greats while forging his own spot in the sport’s history. Pictured, from left, are Houston, Larry Mahan, Shawn Davis and Winston Bruce – all ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductees.

I nventor of the hard-handhold now used on virtually all bareback riggings, ProRodeo Hall of Famer JimHouston was one of the innovators of the lay-back, wild-spurring style of bareback riding. Born in Nebraska City, Neb., Feb. 25, 1941, Houston’s mother moved the family to Omaha in 1943, shortly after his father was killed in a bomber inWorldWar II. Houston got the rodeo bug at 10 years old when his aunt took him to Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days. A three-letter athlete at Tech High in Omaha, Houston heard about the nightly rodeos held in Cody, Wyo., throughout the summer so he spent his vacations there in 1959 and 1960. He went on to join the Rodeo Cowboys Association in the fall of 1961 and was taken in tow by five-time NFR qualifier Pete Crump, who helped Houston win Rookie of the Year. “When I got started, there was a great cowboy, Pete Crump, who was a top guy who traveled with Bill Linderman,” Houston said. “He (Crump) would do all kinds of things to promote me. I was riding good, but if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have made the Finals.” Houston won consecutive bareback riding world titles in 1964 and 1965. His second world title was a struggle after suffering separated ribs in Round 2. Standing 6-foot-2 and weighing 185 pounds, Houston was a rarity in ProRodeo, as cowboys of his size were not

Innovator and two-time world champ continues to follow rodeo

BY MATT NABER

ProRodeo Sports News 1/24/2020

ProRodeo.com

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