ProRodeo Sports News - June 11, 2021

TIME CAPSULE VERNE ELLIOTT

The Forerunner ‘Dean of them all’ was one of rodeo’s first producers BY SCOTT KANIEWSKI W hen there’s a picture of you surrounded by Casey Tibbs, Bill Linderman and Buster Ivory and you’re the one receiving a plaque, you’ve probably done some good things in the world of rodeo. Verne Elliott did more than a few good things. The ProRodeo Hall of Famer (inducted in 1990) was considered one of the first rodeo producers. Elliott started as a competitor but suffered a number of injuries. The Colorado cowboy wasn’t about to quit the sport he loved. PRCA ProRodeo file photos From left: Casey Tibbs, Bill Linderman, Verne Elliott and Buster Ivory. Elliott shows off a plaque he received from the RCA in 1955 as a pioneer in rodeo.

Instead, in 1917, he partnered with Eddie McCarty and produced the first indoor rodeo held in Fort Worth, Texas. There, Elliott built the first bucking chutes used in competition. And it didn’t stop there. Elliott and McCarty also produced the first Denver National Western Rodeo in 1931, now one of the biggest winter rodeos in the PRCA. Elliott continued to produce the National Western after McCarty’s death in 1946, until he died in 1962. Elliott was born in Colorado on July 4, 1890. He and McCarty grew to take rodeos to New York in 1922 and London in 1924 and 1934. According to the September 1962 edition of the Western Horseman , rodeo announcer Pete Adams called Elliott, “… rodeo’s greatest personality – the dean of them all.”

ProRodeo Sports News 6/11/2021

ProRodeo.com

18