Casey Tibbs

Producer

• Born: March 5, 1929
• Birthplace: Mission Ridge, near Fort Pierre, South Dakota
• Died: January 28, 1990
• Place of death: Ramona, California

Sport: Rodeo

Early Life

Casey Duane Tibbs was born March 5, 1929, in Mission Ridge, near Fort Pierre, South Dakota, to John and Florence Tibbs. Casey was the youngest of ten children; he had five brothers and four sisters. Casey’s father raised horses, and Casey took to the saddle almost immediately. He was breaking horses for six to ten dollars a head by the time he was thirteen. Casey soon decided to compete in rodeo full time. He entered an amateur contest and won four first prizes. This good beginning was soon followed by a broken ankle. Also, Casey’s father saw no reason for any of his children to leave the ranch. He was opposed to life on the rodeo circuit. Still, Casey persevered and persuaded his mother to sign a letter of consent so he could enter professional competitions.

The Road to Excellence

When he was fifteen, Casey won his first rodeo prize money riding a bucking horse at McLaughlin, South Dakota. He won only eighty-seven dollars, but Casey was hooked on the rodeo.

Rodeo competitions differ from most sports in that the contestants’ entry fees become the prize money to be won or lost. Casey found it necessary to work part-time as a ranch hand to supplement his income. He was in fifth place in the saddle bronc competition by the time he was seventeen. He was in third place the next year, and number one by age nineteen.

In rodeo competition, there are two kinds of bronc riders, bareback and saddle. A bareback rider must stay on the horse for 8 seconds, whereas a saddle bronc rider must ride for 10 seconds. Needless to say, although the prize money is extremely generous in terms of the length of actual competition, the horse seldom cooperates with the rider. The rider is judged not only on his form but also on the ferocity of the horse’s reaction. The judges award half the points for one criterion and half for the other.

Rodeo is a highly contested sport; even a modest competition may draw a hundred riders in the saddle and bareback categories. Moreover, big rodeos occur throughout the year, and riders have little time between contests.

A rider must enter as many competitions as possible, because championships are assessed on the basis of prize money won in a year. Finally, while contestants may compete in a single event, most try to capture the all-around title awarded by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). In order to qualify for the all-around title, a rider must compete in at least three events.

The Emerging Champion

Casey chose to concentrate on saddle bronc, bareback bronc, and bull riding. All three events are dangerous and injuries are common, but Casey was extremely successful as a rodeo performer. He won seven professional circuit saddle bronc and bareback riding championships and was the World Champion All-Around Cowboy on two occasions.

Admittedly, Casey paid for his triumphs with numerous broken bones and assorted fractures, but he obviously loved his work. The monetary rewards were substantial—he earned a then-record $42,065 in 1955—but the excitement and the ever-present danger were intoxicating as well.

Casey lived his life on the rodeo circuit at a rapid pace. Moreover, he stood out from the crowd with his flashy purple outfits and his Cadillac convertibles in the same color. For all his antics, Casey was an exceptional performer.

Casey developed an exemplary feeling for what could and could not be done with a horse. Indeed, he was often able to persuade even “bad” mounts to give him a winning ride. Riders are assigned mounts on the basis of a lottery system in which the luck of the draw dramatically affects chances for success.

Casey was not physically heavy in his active years, so he developed a riding style that involved “floating” a horse rather than “anchoring” himself to the saddle in the fashion of heavier, brawnier riders. This trademark rocking-chair style was often imitated, but none succeeded in matching the skill with which Casey forked a bronc coming out of the chute. In 1951, he won the professional titles in saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, and the all-around cowboy division. This took an unprecedented display of skill and stamina.

Continuing the Story

The time a bronc rider spends at work is short—Casey once remarked, “I’m on and off a bronc before I can take a deep breath”—but the working conditions are physically demanding. After thirty-nine breaks and fractures, Casey decided it was time to pursue a less-demanding regimen. As a star on the rodeo circuit, he earned a great deal of money, but his expenses were equally high.

The entry fees, hospital bills, transportation from contest to contest, and living expenses while competing make up a considerable investment for a rodeo performer. Casey’e exotic outfits, his propensity for flashy automobiles, and his inclination to gamble with his life and his prize money left him rich in awards but short on cash. Furthermore, his reputation as a practical joker cost him a career as a film star.

Still, the toughness that sustained him on the circuit remained and the former Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association All-Around Cowboy survived. He undertook a career as a stuntman, raised horses on ranches in California and South Dakota, organized rodeos around the world, served as a representative for numerous corporations, and produced an award-winning film Born to Buck (1967). In 1990, he died of cancer at the age of sixty.

Summary

Casey Tibbs was founder of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and a charter member of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. He is credited with bringing professional rodeo to national attention. For more than a decade, he was America’s best-loved cowboy.

Bibliography

Allen, Michael. Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1998.

Ehringer, Gavin, and Gary Vorhes. Rodeo Legends: Twenty Extraordinary Athletes of America’s Sport. Colorado Springs, Colo.: Western Horseman Magazine, 2003.

Melvin, Donna Maher. Casey Tibbs: Nine-Time World Champion Pro-Rodeo Cowboy. [South Dakota]: Author, 2008.

Wooden, Wayne S., and Gavin Ehringer. Rodeo in America: Wranglers, Roughstock, and Paydirt. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1996.