Rodeo: The Other All-American Sport MEMPHIS, TN (WKNO) - Rodeo started in the West, but has spread to every corner of the United States. The legend has it rodeo began one 4th of July when two groups of cowboys held a competition to see who was better at performing their everyday ranch chores.

That genesis story does not, however, explain bull riding. Unlike most other rodeo events even saddle bronc riding, which entails getting on a bucking horse there is no reason, outside of rodeo competition, a cowboy would ever need to ride a bull. You can lead a bull where you need him to go and cowboys do.

That's what was happening on October 21, 2009 in a covered arena in Senatobia, Mississippi. Cowboys herded bulls from the pens behind the arena into bucking chutes right at the ring's edge. Metal gates rolled open and slammed shut.

It is a little harder to lead a bull that bucks. Though pretty much all bulls are big and stocky and have aggressive-looking horns, not all bulls are bothered by having a cowboy on their back, even fewer are going to put up the fight expected in the rodeo ring. Good bucking bulls are rare, and when you do find one, that bull tends to be mean.

An angry, yellow bull gives the men the most trouble. It takes five cowboys, a whip and an electric prod to get "Yella" into his chute. The men look a little nervous. The chutes aren't much bigger than the bulls. They are made of metal gates with horizontal bars, and for this reason, look a little like sideways prison cells.

"If these bulls were people they would probably be doing 30 to life," Bruce Lee said.

Lee is the coach of the Northwest Mississippi Community College Rodeo team. He's wearing a large white cowboy hat, jeans, and cowboy boots. He has a long white mustache. It's his bull-riding practice. Once the bulls are safely locked in the chutes he explains:

"Riding a bull is like doing some other extreme things like bungee jumping or motorcycle racing. Or things like that. And, you know, yeah, it's dangerous. People have gotten killed doing this, so we take all the precautions we can."

Those precautions include a bull-fighter, who tries to divert the bull's attention and keep an animal from trampling or goring a fallen rider, a modified lacrosse helmet, and a padded vest. Bulls weigh more than a 1,000 pounds. Some of the bulls Lee's students are practicing on tonight weigh close to 1, 500 pounds. At the professional level, bulls can weigh even more.

"Everyone thinks it's the horns that are so dangerous on a bull, what it is, is the hooves," Lee says and reaches out and pats the back of a caged bull. "Imagine one of his feet coming down in the middle of your back full force, and something is going to give, and it is probably going to be you out there. I wouldn't ride one anymore unless I had a full suit of armor on, but that's me," he laughs.

"Riding" a bull actually means staying on for eight seconds. That's how long it takes to get a score. Scores are out of 100, with 50 points judged on the rider, and 50 judged on the bull. Brian Dowdy is one of Lee's students. He's ranked sixth in the region. He gets on a little black bull named Tiny Elvis and Lee opens the bucking chute.

Tiny Elvis takes off kicking and twisting, he can't actually buck as high as some larger bulls, and this makes him tricky to ride, because bull-riders use the upwards thrust of the bull's hooves to right their body position. Dowdy holds one hand over his head and keeps his other hand around yellow rope wrapped around Elvis' barrel. The rope has a bell on it which rings as Elvis bucks. The only thing holding the rope to Elvis is Dowdy's hand and after a short bout of ringing and struggling, Dowdy lets go, and falls off. The rope falls to the ground, and Elvis runs to the far side of the pen.

The whole ride lasts about five seconds. At the end of it Dowdy lands right back where he started in the bucking chute. If training in these miniscule shots seems improbable to you, Lee says bull riding is best understood through that other all-American sport:

"First time I ever went to a professional baseball game, and I was watching this guy pitch. I thought to myself Whoa! You know, how can they even see the ball? I mean, hit the ball?," Lee marvels, "I can't even see the ball, just a blur out there."

Lee says good bull-riders, like good baseball players, are able to slow time down, "Sort of like if you've ever been in a car-wreck and things almost seem kinda slow motion."

Another one of Bruce Lee's students, Shane Campbell, might explain it best. Like Lee, Campbell is wearing jeans, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. He stands on a platform about the height of a gallows and waits his turn to ride a bull.

He shares the name of an iconic Western movie character. And, like that character, he is a man of few words.

"Shane. Yes, Ma'am," he says. "You gotta love it. You can't not love it."

Campbell has only been bull-riding a year. He says he'll keep going until his body wears out.








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