ProRodeo Sports News - Sept.15, 2023

to Sisters, (Ore.), which was about 500 miles,” Growney said. “Sisters is Red Rock’s hometown, that is where he came from and this place is just packed. Lane rides Red Rock for the third time.” With Frost leading the Challenge 3-2, Red Rock evened the score in St. Paul (Ore.) and bucks Frost off on July 4. That set the stage and increased the drama to a paramount in a winner take-all ride in Spanish Fork, Utah, July 25, 1988. “We had every major newspaper covering us, including USA Today and Sports Ilustrated ,” Growney said. “At Spanish Fork, there were movie cameras out in the arena. I took marketing classes at school, and I knew this is something we needed to do and when George Michael got involved, USA Today, all these media people getting involved pretty soon I was like the little guy who got pushed out of the way. They knew what they wanted to do with it. I knew it was bigger than life.” Frost, in a true Hollywood script, rode Red Rock for 9.63 seconds – well past the whistle – to win the Challenge 4-3. “I was glad it was over. I’d do it again, but I sure was glad it was over,” Frost was quoted in media outlets. “Out there in the arena after I got off I thought ‘One of the greatest things in rodeo is over.’ You know, it was something everyone could understand. The general public could understand it and knew what was happening all the way through. Everybody can understand one on one. One of the greatest things that’s happened in rodeo in a long time had just happened. Me and Red Rock.” That was Red Rock’s last ride as he retired and then Frost died following a ride at Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days on July 30, 1989. He was 25.

Lane and Red Rock were immortalized with induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1990 in Colorado Springs, Colo. In 1994, Hollywood remembered him with a big screen tribute called 8 Seconds . “With the death of Lane the next year, (this Challenge of Champions) became bigger than life,” Growney said. “I think through Kendra Santos and Sue Rosoff and myself, we kept Lane’s memory alive. Lane’s mom, Elsie, never let his name go. Any money she made she bought those bibles she was giving out. I get emotional because I see these 18-year-old bull riders looking at me and they know I’m part of that story. I know they want to know me and I make sure they know me.” Hedeman was full of praise for Frost. Hedeman had one trip on Red Rock in Portland in January of 1985 and lasted for a jump and a half before he was bucked off. “It was just a testament to how great Lane was,” Hedeman said. “That bull had never been ridden and he bucked off all the good guys. Red Rock annihilated me and that’s pretty much what he did to everybody. Once Lane rode Red Rock it became a tossup on who was going to win. The last time he rode Red Rock, like all the great champions do, he knew he had to do something different to buck him off and he went to the left and there was no chance he was going to buck him off. “It was a cool series and it meant a lot for rodeo at the time because it drew the attention of people who knew nothing about rodeo. “The best thing about 8 Seconds is it exposed rodeo to millions of people who would have never known or had a clue what rodeo was or who Lane Frost was.”

Photo courtesy Frost family Clyde Frost and his wife Elsie, stand behind their son Lane’s headstone in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, in Hugo, Okla. He was laid to rest beside Freckles Brown, his adopted grandpa, mentor, idol, and fellow world champion bull rider.

ProRodeo Sports News 9/15/2023

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