ProRodeo Sports News - March 18, 2022

come to us,” Cathy said. The 2021 rodeo was sold out and had nearly 1,000 people in the standing-room only areas during the Saturday night performance. “We’re investing every bit of it back into the cowboys and cowgirls,” Cathy said. She is also helping spearhead an effort to build a new indoor facility at the rodeo’s home, the Elko County Fairgrounds. The Laughlins hope to see that venue host the rodeo by the 2025 season. For the 2022 season, the Silver State Stampede has jumped added money to $10,000 per event, gained a spot on the PRCA’s NFR Playoff Series and will have stock provided by seven-time PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year Frontier Rodeo for the first time. “We had committed to going to $8,500 from our 2021 revenues,” Cathy said. “Then we had an anonymous donor come to us and say, ‘$10,000 sounds better than $8,500,’’’ she added. “We owe a lot to him for investing in us.” The 2022 edition of the rodeo will be its 110th and 35th under the banner of the PRCA. Famed bit and spur maker GS Garcia helped get the first rodeo off the ground in 1912. Garcia Spurs, made today by J.M. Capriola of Elko, are still given to event winners. The Silver State Stampede also gives a High Point Nevada Cowboy Award, a rifle, in honor of Walt Leberski, a former board member who resurrected the rodeo and brought it into the ranks of ProRodeo. The 2022 Silver State Stampede is July 8-10. WILL ROGERS STAMPEDE STORMS NEW AWARD The Will Rogers Stampede in Claremore is celebrating its 76th anniversary in 2022 and has been on a steady rise for several years. According to David Petty, Rodeo Chairman since 2002, it all began to snowball in 2014, the year the rodeo was first honored with the PRCA’s Small Rodeo of the Year award. “The first time we won Rodeo of the Year, the city woke up and saw that Claremore was kind of a big deal,” Petty said. The City Manager at the time was not a “rodeo guy” but was friends with a member of the Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo committee. “His friend sent him congratulations. He was kind of naive to the fact and had no idea about the rodeo.” The rodeo committee invited the city official to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas the next year, where the rodeo claimed a second Small Rodeo of the Year title. “He bought into it and that started the ball rolling to get us back on the rodeo map,” Petty said. Today, seeds planted back then have manifested as the Rodeo Arena Cooperative, an interlocal agreement between the Will Rogers Round Up Club, which consists of about 30 people, and the City of Claremore and Board of County Commissioners of Rogers County. “The Coop has helped with infrastructure by accessing the budget of certain parts of Parks and Rec, helping put more money toward the facility,” Petty said. The Claremore Stampede Park and Arena, home of the rodeo since the late 1950s, transferred from private ownership of the Round Up Club to the Coop. Since the ownership change, the 60-year-old facility has gotten new asphalt parking, bleachers, holding pens, roping chutes and boxes and a new announcer stand. A new hospitality area has been built and LED lighting added to illuminate the action. Ironically, the tough decision to cancel the 2020 Stampede due to COVID allowed the time needed to make the major improvements needed at Stampede Park. “It was a tough deal, but we used it to our advantage, used the time to get stuff done,” Petty said. On strength of record crowds a year ago, the 2022Will Rogers Stampede will have nearly double the added money of 2021, a year in which they won their history making sixth PRCA Small Rodeo of the Year title along with claiming the same title for the WPRA after

adding breakaway roping for the first time. “We average between 500 and 600 entries a year, quite a feat for a small rodeo,” Petty said. The purse in 2022 will be $44,000 total including bothWPRA events and $8,000 to the featured event of steer roping. The increase moves the Will Rogers Stampede into the Medium Rodeo category for PRCA year-end awards, a move Petty hopes will be just a stepping stone to one day being in the Large Outdoor category. “We feature steer roping because of where we are in northeastern Oklahoma. This is Ben Johnson’s home and home of a lot of great ropers,” Petty said. “And of course, this is Will Rogers’ home.” According to Petty, stock contractor Pete Carr deserves credit for Claremore’s rise as well. “He is a strong partner in the new product we have. Our titles would not have been possible without the production and the crews he brings in,” Petty said. “From the specialty acts to the guys running the stripping chutes . . . it takes a village.” “I can’t say enough about our sponsors, a lot of them have been with us for 30-plus years,” Petty asserted. “Our community is really behind us.” The 2022Will Rogers Stampede will take place May 27-29.

Photo courtesy Claremore Rodeo A new announcer stand building is part of the improvements the award- winning Will Rodgers Stampede has done over the years.

ProRodeo Sports News 3/18/2022

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