ProRodeo Sports News - January 22, 2021

CATCHING UP WITH ... BOB LOGUE One Tough Cowboy

Logue overcame paralysis to get back in rodeo BY MATT NABER G oing from being paralyzed from the neck down to competing at the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-up in less than a year and making multiple trips to the National Finals Rodeo afterward isn’t normal. Neither is bareback rider Bob Logue. In 1983, a season after placing at 100 rodeos, Logue was in the hunt for a world title when his horse in Pendleton scraped him off at the chutes and trampled him. When help arrived, Logue was barely breathing, bordering on unconscious and paralyzed from the neck down. “The horse stepped on my back and kind of pushed my body all the way over, and I got what they call a hangman’s fracture,” Logue said. “They say I died in the arena, and I think I did. I know I saw the white light that they say you’ll see, and I kept saying over and over in my mind, ‘I can do all things through Christ Jesus.’ I said it over and over, and I knew I couldn’t hang on. I’d seen the light and said, ‘I give up Lord, it’s not my will but your will,’ and then all of a sudden I was back alive.” On Sept. 17, 1983, the California-born, Texas-raised cowboy suffered that horrific injury. “I’ve never seen it, but they televised it and I lived it, so I don’t need to see it,” Logue said. “At the time I didn’t want to (watch it), but I wouldn’t mind now. It was in the short-go and I will never forget the day, it changed my life forever. “I had my eyes on maybe having five or even eight world championships, and that year was going to be the first of them. The year before, I placed at over 100 rodeos and Bruce (Ford) squeaked one by and I was second in the world, but I set a record by placing at 100 rodeos in 1982, so 1983 was going to be my year.” At the time, Logue was traveling with Ford, a five-time world champion bareback rider (1979-80, 1982-83, 1987) who was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1993. “Bob was the greatest travel partner I ever had, and he kept me youthful,” said Ford, who rodeoed with Logue from 1979 to the mid ’80s. “Everything from playing video games to driving with the TV up on the dash of the car. It kept me energetic about rodeo, and they could see that he enjoyed life. “When he came back from breaking his neck, he came back with a vengeance and was riding tough, I thought he might even beat me. I think the accident cost him the world championship.”

LIFE AFTER DEATH The prognosis for a full recovery was slim. Doctors said Logue would be in the hospital for three months. He left after one. He regained the ability to walk soon after but had little control of his arms. He used a half-pound barbell to begin strengthening his arms and worked his way up to walking three to four miles a day with a steel halo and Philadelphia collar on. About three months later, he started to be able to feel hot and cold. “They (therapists) had to teach me how to walk and maneuver,” Logue said. “It seemed like I was there forever.” Rather than retire, Logue and the Justin Sportsmedicine team worked James Fain photo One month after his nearly fatal bareback riding accident, Bob Logue defied the odds and was on his way to a full recovery, stopping at the Pro Tour Finals in Casper, Wyo., Oct. 16, 1983.

ProRodeo Sports News 1/22/2021

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