ProRodeo Sports News, June 29, 2018

MEMORIAM cowboys. “Really, I was always doing it for the fun, and it was fun for years and years,” Tompkins said in a Sept. 19, 1984, article in the ProRodeo Sports News . “I wouldn’t trade it for anything.” Born in 1927, less than 50 miles north of New York City in Furnace Woods, N.Y., Tompkins learned to ride horses while working on a dude ranch, which had rodeos on Sunday to entertain guests. In 1946, at 19 years old, Tompkins prepared to pull his first bull rope alongside the pros at Madison Square Garden because of a special rodeo promotion where area wranglers – sponsored by the dude ranches which regularly employed them – had a chance to try their luck. Tompkins worked at the Cimarron Dude Ranch in New York. By 1948, he was atop the rodeo world, winning the first of three consecutive bull riding championships. He married Rosemary, the daughter of famous stock contractor Everett Colborn, in 1950, and moved to Dublin, Texas. He had a cattle ranch and designed the portable steel chutes that were used at rodeos in New York and Boston. Wrangler made him one of the first cowboys to have a corporate sponsor. After Rosemary died of cancer, he married current wife, Melba. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame with the inaugural 1979 class. “I hope that I am not only remembered for my major accomplishments in rodeo, but also for my reputation of being honest, fair and respected for what I did,” Tompkins said in an Aug. 11, 1999, article of the PSN . Tompkins is survived by wife, Melba, and her family; sons, Mark (Laura) Tompkins; Neal; daughter, Martha (Larry) Jordan and grandchildren, Jake and Ava. Funeral services will take place July 3 at 10 a.m. (CT) at the Cowboy Church in Erath County at 4945 US-67, Stephenville, Texas, 76401.

CENTRAL WYOMING FAIR & RODEO (CASPER, WYO.) • Bull riding – 1952, ’61 CHEYENNE (WYO.) FRONTIER DAYS • Bull riding – 1949 NATIONAL WESTERN STOCK SHOWRODEO (DENVER, COLO.) • Bull riding – 1948, ’54, ’59, ’60, ’62, and tied ’67 TRI-STATE RODEO (FORT MADISON, IOWA) • Bull riding – 1951, ’53, ’58 • Bareback riding – 1955, ’59, ’60 OLD FORT DAYS (FORT SMITH, ARK.) • Bull riding – 1950, ’51 FORT WORTH STOCK SHOW& RODEO (FORT WORTH, TEXAS) • Bareback riding and All-around – 1954, ‘57 • Bull riding and All-around – 1960 • Bull riding – 1951 • Bareback riding – 1952, ’65 • All-around – 1962 HELLDORADO DAYS RODEO (LAS VEGAS, NEV.) • All-around – 1955 • Bull riding, bareback riding and All-around – 1958 SNAKE RIVER STAMPEDE (NAMPA, IDAHO) • All-around – 1957 • Bull riding – 1958 SANDHILLS STOCK SHOW& RODEO (ODESSA, TEXAS) • Bull riding – 1955 • Bareback riding (tied with Freckles Brown) –1961 OGDEN (UTAH) PIONEER DAYS RODEO • Bull riding, bareback riding and All-around – 1955 • Bull riding and All-around – 1960 WEST OF THE PECOS (TEXAS) RODEO • Bareback riding – 1963 RED BLUFF (CALIF.) ROUND-UP • Bareback riding (tied with Sonny Tureman) – 1949 RENO (NEV.) RODEO • Bull riding – 1952 • Bull riding, bareback riding, and All-around – 1958 CALIFORNIA RODEO SALINAS • Bareback riding – 1950, 1953 • Bull riding, bareback riding and All-around – 1955 • Bull riding – 1960 DAYS OF ’47 RODEO (SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH) • Bareback riding – 1952 • Bareback riding and All-around – 1965 SAN ANGELO (TEXAS) RODEO • Bareback riding – 1950, ’61 • Bull riding, bareback riding and All-around – 1959 • Bull riding and All-around – 1960 • Bareback riding and All-around – 1965 SAN ANTONIO (TEXAS) STOCK SHOW& RODEO • Bareback riding – 1951 GRAND NATIONAL STOCK SHOW& RODEO (SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.) • Bareback riding – 1957 • All-around – 1961 ST. PAUL (ORE.) RODEO NOTABLE WINS

• Bull riding – 1950-51 • Bareback riding – 1953

• Bull riding and bareback riding (tied with Bob Swaim) – 1954 LA FIESTA DE LOS VAQUEROS (TUCSON, ARIZ.) • Bull riding – 1951, ’55-56

Harry Tompkins waved to the crowd as he rode a bull in Eureka, Calif., in 1949. He would win one of his five bull riding gold buckles that season. PRCA ProRodeo file photo

ProRodeo Sports News 6/29/2018

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