ProRodeo Sports News - May 29, 2020

TIME CAPSULE DON HARRINGTON

Harrington served on PRCA board, announced and competed DeVere Helfrich photo Although Don Harrington was known primarily as a ProRodeo announcer, he got his start as a bareback rider and competed at big rodeos like Red Bluff, Calif., in 1964.

Mr. Pepsi

BY MATT NABER K nown as “Mr. Pepsi,” Don Harrington led a ProRodeo career that was as sweet as the drinks his family introduced to Montana. Born in April 1925, Harrington served four years in the Navy during WorldWar II, helped start the University of Montana rodeo team, and announced rodeos across the U.S. and Canada, including the National Finals Rodeo in 1970. Harrington’s father was the first soft drink bottler in Montana and brought the first Pepsi franchise to the state in 1937. And although he continued his father’s business throughout his life, Harrington’s love of ranching and rodeo began in his teens with visits to Hugh Murphy’s ranch in Browns Gulch, Mont. The Butte, Mont., cowboy competed in his first rodeos in high school. After WWII he helped start the University of Montana rodeo team, where he competed in bareback riding and tie-down roping. He graduated with a business administration degree in 1950. Harrington joined the family business in 1953, which brought on the nickname Mr. Pepsi. One year later, he joined the PRCA, spending his first year as a bareback rider, announcer and secretary. Following his marriage to Shirley Davis in 1955, Harrington switched from bareback riding to tie- down roping. In addition to competing, Harrington started announcing rodeos when another announcer didn’t show up and often announced while competing at a rodeo. He was the only man to announce the NFR, the National High School Finals Rodeo and the College National Finals Rodeo

in the same year. As busy as he was with the family business, he always made time for rodeo in Big Sky Country. Harrington and his son Mark also had a ranch in Sheridan, Mont., where they ran 500 head of commercial angus cattle and 60 American Quarter Horses. Harrington’s daughter, Lynn, married PRCA steer wrestler Fred Hirschy. Harrington donated young horses each year to Montana State University, the University of Montana Western and 4-H to help their equine programs. Harrington also served on the PRCA board. “I was at the meeting when Benny Binion, who owned the big hotel in Las Vegas, said if you fellas would move the rodeo fromOklahoma City to Las Vegas, Nevada, those cowboys will have more money than they’ve ever had in their life. And he was right (laughs),” Harrington told the Great Falls Tribune in January 2013. He also announced at the first Montana Circuit Finals Rodeo in Bozeman, a role he held for more than 15 years. Harrington was honored with the Ben Johnson Award by the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in 2002. In 2013, Harrington was honored by the American Quarter Horse Association for registering Quarter Horse foal crops for 50 consecutive years. “Everybody has to have something in life he enjoys. Rodeo is mine,” Harrington told ProRodeo Sports News in March 1982. “That’s what life is all about!” Harrington died of natural causes Sept. 30, 2013, at 88 at his ranch home in Dillon, Mont.

ProRodeo Sports News 5/29/2020

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