OK, BACK TO OSCAR. The photo from yesterday was used for promotional purposes for The Great American Cowboy...theatre posters et. Unfortunately the negative was reversed, showing me riding left handed...and once it left the printers and was distributed, the opportunity to change it was lost. Oscar wasnt big (about 1150-1200lbs.) but he was FAST. He would leave the chute with one jump & then he was in a violent spin to the left. For a right hander, like me, it was definitely a balancing act...if you made too much of a move to get away from your hand, you were immediately down in the well. Being on his back was like being in the middle of a small tornado with everything whirling around you. If you tried to stay out of the well, then centrifugal force would sling you to the outside...and that is exactly what happened to me. Off ! Flung to the outside. Its amazing after all these years - people will still come up to me at events and ask if I rode Oscar in the Great American Cowboy. And so ended the movie which won an Academy Award (an Oscar!) for Kieth Merrill and became an iconic film about the sport, plus it introduced countless thousands of people to our world of Western culture and RODEO. As a brief footnote: I received a call after the movie premiered from an apparel company interested in designing a line of clothing with me...and thus, began my new career in the Western clothing business - a business I am still involved with today and enjoy very much. P.S. Oscar was inducted to the PRCA Hall of Fame in 1979. Owned by RSC, he is considered one of the top 10 bulls of all time, ridden only 8 times in 300 outs - the first 5 years as a bucking bull, he dusted more than 100 cowboys. John Davis was the first man to ride Oscar (right hand down)Salinas 1975. Don Gay rode Oscar 3 times (left hand down); the most memorable ride was at the Cow Palace in 1977 for 97 points. Check out the PRCA Hall of Fame website for more about Oscar.
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 18:03:50 +0000