[title subtitle=”words: Dwain Hebda
Images: courtesy Avid Visual Imagery”][/title]
A bright red gate swings open and a young bull charges into the arena. From the second the animal sets hoof in the powdery, cocoa-brown dust the crowd knows he’s looking for a piece of somebody – anybody – who’s crazy enough to challenge him. He doesn’t have to look far.
A man stands a few yards in front of the raven-black monster, momentarily frozen in place, but light on his feet. The beast sees him and for a split second gives a quizzical look, as if sharing the sentiment of the crowd that anyone climbing in the ring with him must be seriously loco. Then, he charges.
The duo is facing off in an event called freestyle bullfighting. Unlike the traditional version which pokes and sticks the bull to weaken it until the matador ends the spectacle in a bloody coup de grace, the freestyle event evens the odds considerably. The human competitor is allowed no spurs, no weapons, no implements of any kind, just wits and reflexes enough to get as close as possible to the 1,200 pounds of ticked-off ribeye, hoof and horn trying to kill him.
Freestyle bullfighting is just one of the highly entertaining events at the Old Fort Days Rodeo, a Fort Smith institution for eighty-six years. Cowboys and cowgirls from as far away as Canada make their way to the event, sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). Reckoned at about five hundred in any given year, competitors ride, rope and yes, bullfight their way to a cash prize and perhaps beyond as most events carry points toward qualifying for December’s National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.
“We draw from a lot of states, maybe fifteen or more,” says Randy Mizell, Old Fort Days Rodeo chairman. “They come from all over; a lot of bronc and bareback riders come from Montana. We get some Canadians, California, Oregon; anybody trying to get in the NFR is going to be here.” More than just about anything that defines Fort Smith’s pedigree as gateway to the frontier, Old Fort Days Rodeo cements the city’s links to its past. The original event, held at Andrews Field near the Arkansas River, was tagged the Pawnee Bill Rodeo after wild west showman Pawnee Bill (aka Gordon Lillie) of Oklahoma, a contemporary and sometimes business partner of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. Pawnee Bill appeared at several of the early Fort Smith rodeos, spurring its popularity.
Another seminal figure in those fledgling days was R.K. Rodgers, a Fort Smith local who took over as the event’s director starting in 1934. Rodgers guided the event through good times (purchase of the former OG&E Electric Park, now known as Kay Rodgers Park and construction of Harper Arena) and the bad (Arkansas River flooding).
But through it all, even the global conflict of World War II couldn’t disrupt the annual confluence of human, equine and bovine talent from congregating, or the crowds from turning out to watch.
“That stadium will hold 7,000 or 8,000 people,” says Denny Flynn, executive director at Kay Rodgers Park. “There’s a couple nights where it’s pretty tight just squeezin’ in seats. One time for Family Night we just about filled it up. It was great.” Rodeo hasn’t always been in fashion but one of the things that has kept Old Fort Days running is its authenticity and Denny has that in spades. The bull-riding product of Charleston, Arkansas, he resides in the Professional Rodeo Hall of Fame, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Rodeo Hall of Fame and this year, the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
A ten-time National Finals Rodeo competitor, Denny was ranked fourth or better in the world for seven straight years during his dazzling career. He finished second three times in the PRCA, a ranking determined by prize winnings. Like every tenured cowboy, Denny’s lived both sides of the rodeo coin – his ninety-eight-point ride aboard Steiner’s Red Lighting stands as second best in PRCA history, but he was also nearly gored to death in 1975, among a myriad of other scrapes, breaks and near-misses.
These days, Denny is content to book rank bulls rather than climb aboard one for an eight-second tornado ride. For that, the rodeo contracts with one of the best rodeo stock outfits in the business. “We work with Andrews Rodeo Company out of Texas,” Randy says. “They had a bull several years ago named Bodacious.
Everybody knows that name and that bull belonged to them. They’ve had the bucking bull of the year in the PRCA the last couple years. They’ve got some really good stock and they stock at all the big rodeos in Texas and Oklahoma.” Unlike other rodeo events, Old Fort Days doesn’t distract from the competition by throwing in a big-name concert or sticking it onto a carnival. But they aren’t above leveraging some spectacle to keep audiences coming back, either. A parade in downtown Fort Smith launches the rodeo every
year, drawing thousands. Special theme nights including Family Night, Military Appreciation and Tough Enough to Wear Pink cancer awareness night packs in thousands more. “Attendance has been pretty steady; it’s hard to get an exact handle on numbers,” says Denny. “We do six nights; we start on Memorial Day and that’s one of our biggest nights. Then we have a Family Night Tuesday and Wednesday where we cheapen up the tickets for families to afford to come. Friday and Saturday are really good crowds because it’s towards the end of the week.”
Despite having to compete among an unprecedented number of activities vying for young people’s time and attention, rodeo is still hanging tough. After peaking in the 1990s, the sport suffered a slow but steady decline in the number of professional events before hitting bottom in 2009.
Since then, rodeos have staged a comeback with more events and bigger prize money, led by small-town contests such as Fort Smith’s. Here, the future is foretold by Old Fort Days’ teeming numbers of mutton busters – a crowd favorite event comprised of tykes clinging to the backs of runaway sheep. That, plus the growth of high school and college rodeo clubs has Denny optimistic about the future.
“I see [rodeo] growing. We’ve got a little organization around here that just the other day had a little junior rodeo and there were fifty-eight bull riders on a two-day deal. That just shocked me,” Denny says. “CBS Sports has a lot of rodeos and with the National Finals being on TV, all of that has helped with attendance because anytime the kids want to do or see that the parents are going to take them.”
Back at the bullfighting, the competitor is getting the best of the animal until the beast wheels unexpectedly and in a dusty blink tosses its head and the competitor skyward. Outside, the gathering darkness musters a cool breeze through the grandstand filled with appreciative buckaroos of all ages, each one booted and buckled just so. Kids laugh, couples hold hands, fans cheer. It’s rodeo night in Fort Smith, U.S.A. once more.
Old Fort Days Rodeo
May 27 – June 1, 2019
oldfortdaysrodeo.com