ProRodeo Sports News - June 12, 2020

Fourteen months after surviving a plane crash, Marvin Garrett (center) competed at the 2000 National Western Stock Show and Rodeo. Marvin Garrett survives plane crash to return to NFR Rodeo Phoenix

BY MATT NABER M arvin Garrett is a four-time world champion bareback rider with a 25-year ProRodeo career and $1.4 million in career earnings. He also survived a plane crash. Born July 28, 1963, in Belle Fourche, S.D., Garrett joined the PRCA in 1983 and was the 1984 bareback riding rookie of the year. At a young age, Garrett exhibited exceptional athletic

Mental strength was equally important. “The mental part of that is the biggest part,” Marvin said. “If you do that every day, it sounds funny, but you’re living day to day, and before you know it 25 years goes by quick and it doesn’t feel like 25 years.” ProRodeo success runs in Garrett’s family. Marvin’s brother, Mark, was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2015 for his bareback riding career that included nine trips to the NFR and a world title in 1996. Marvin’s

son, Weston, also competed in bareback riding from 2005- 17. Marvin’s nephew J.D. Garrett Jr. competed at the 2002 NFR in bareback riding. Marvin’s younger nephew Shorty Garrett is continuing the family tradition in saddle bronc riding and is fifth in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings. “I don’t think he really puts much thought into it,” Shorty said. “It’s just the way they lived back then, but they dang-sure escaped death when they got in that crash.”

prowess as an All-State and All-American wrestler in 1982, receiving wrestling scholarship offers from colleges in Iowa and North Dakota. But he also received rodeo scholarships from colleges inWyoming and North Dakota, opting to compete for Northwest College in Powell, Wyo. That decision took him to four gold buckles (1988-89, 1994-95) and 12 trips to the National Finals Rodeo (1986- 90, 1992-97 and 2000). On the circuit level, Garrett was the Mountain States Circuit bareback riding champion three times (1987-88 and 1990). During that time, he was on a hot streak that took him to the top of the charts as the regular- season money leader four times (1989, 1993-94 and 1996). The South Dakota cowboy’s accomplishments earned him an induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1998, but the cowboy wasn’t done, competing 10 more years. “We rodeoed so much that it kept us in shape, but I do

“There’s a lot of great memories, and I wouldn’t trade them for anything – the gold buckles or any of it.” – MARVIN GARRETT

PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR

In 1998, Marvin and Mark were flying with saddle bronc rider Scott Johnston and bull rider Thad Bothwell from Bozeman, Mont., to San Francisco to compete at the Grand National Rodeo. Retired rider Johnny Morris piloted. The fuel pump had a leak, causing the rented single- engine Cessna 210 to crash near Lodi, Calif. Everyone on the plane suffered broken backs except for Mark, who pulled Marvin out of the plane, which was wedged in a tree. Morris died two weeks after the crash. “Johnny Morris was a great man and flew us for years,” Marvin said. The fuel pump leaked between two to four gallons of fuel per hour, and

credit my high school and college wrestling for getting me in shape,” Marvin said. “Every year before the Finals, I would take the month of November to swim and run and just be flexible. I didn’t work too much on body building. The tighter you are, the more injuries you’ll get, so I tried to stay flexible and toned, and that seemed to work.”

ProRodeo Sports News 6/12/2020

ProRodeo.com

45