ProRodeo Sports News - Sept. 6, 2024

TIME CAPSULE HUGH BENNETT

Rodeo Pioneer

Les Ordeman photo Hugh Bennett snaps a photo with the Sam Jackson Trophy presented to the All-Around Champion at the Pendleton (Ore.) Roundup.

Hugh Bennett was world champ, early administrator BY PRCA STAFF

Bennett attended the festivities as an honored guest. “There aren’t too many of us old-time Turtles anymore,” Bennett said in the 25th anniversary of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame special edition. “We soon forget some of the people who need recognition. We didn’t know when we got to Boston how this thing was going to work. We didn’t want to be left high and dry in Boston. That’s the furthest east you can get.” He was also a tough cowboy. In 1931, he suffered four broken ribs when he was run over by a horse at a Utah rodeo but competed three weeks later with a bandaged chest at the Pendleton (Ore.) Round-Up and won the all-around title. He also survived prostate cancer in 1946. Bennett was born in 1905 on a ranch near Knox City, Texas, and raised quality horses throughout his long life. Bennett bought a ranch just northeast of Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1938 and lived there until his death in 1994. He helped found the American Quarter Horse Association and was inducted into its Hall of Fame in 1990. He was also a member of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His autobiography, Horseman: Brand of a Legend, was published in 1992, six years after he was named “Man of the Year” by the PRCA.

H ugh Bennett was a big man in rodeo, both in the arena – where he was a world champion in two events – and in helping cowboys form a professional association nearly 90 years ago. The 6-foot-4 Bennett was part of the 1979 inaugural class of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and one of the founders of the Hall of Champions. He won the steer wrestling gold buckle in 1932 and added the steer roping world title in 1938. In between, he was among the leaders of the cowboys’ famous strike at the Boston Garden rodeo in 1936, which led to their entry fees being included in the purse and in the formation of the Cowboys’ Turtle Association, the forerunner of the PRCA. Bennett was a powerful voice in the CTA and served as the organization’s first secretary/treasurer from October 1936 until 1941. He ran the office – with the help of his wife, Josie – from the trunk of their car. On Aug. 6, 1979, a grand opening was held at 101 Pro Rodeo Drive in Colorado Springs, Colo., for the PRCA’s national headquarters and Hall of Champions, which later was named the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.

ProRodeo Sports News 9/6/2024

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