ProRodeo Sports News - March 23, 2018

Twins Ronny and Donny Sparks celebrated Ronny winning his first of

three world titles at the 1992 NFR, above. The brothers are identical, even sharing similar scars from various injuries over three decades of bullfighting. PRCA ProRodeo file photos

Sparking Up Interest

Twin bullfighters share experiences BY MATT NABER W hen bullfighters Donny and Ronny Sparks used to hit the arena, fans and bulls were in for twice the action. The identical twins from Texas kept bull riders safe and fans cheering over three decades. While they are identical, their ProRodeo experiences were as uniquely different and colorful as the costumes they wore. “Even if you didn’t know where he (Ronny) was, you knew where you needed to be,” Donny said. “It’s that sense of being twins.” Rodeo committees liked to advertise having identical twin bullfighters. But the brothers’ goal was to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo, so they tried to compete against each other as rarely as possible. Unlike other NFR events, freestyle bullfighting only took the Top 6 athletes. “Why compete against your brother and keep him from going to the NFR when you could go beat someone else?” Donny said. “He knew my moves, so it was a disadvantage because he knew what he had to do to beat me. Growing up playing basketball or shooting a gun or whatever, anything competitive in the world, I was better at it than he was, and I always won. “The first time he beat me was when he got his first world title in 1992. Guess what it made him? It made him an expert at everything.” Donny wasn’t making it up. “He always whipped my butt, but I learned from it,” Ronny said. “There was an advantage as far as cowboy protection because I knew where he was going to be before I even moved. But competing against him, you’d better have your ‘A’ game because he was going to whoop your butt.”

ProRodeo Sports News 3/23/18

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