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Bill Pickett is
credited with inventing the rodeo event called bulldogging, also known
as steer-wrestling, in 1903. In 1971, he became the first African-American cowboy to be inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame. To date, he remains the best-known rodeo performer of color, even though there have been many, and many famous ones, since his time. Fort Worth's Cowboy Coliseum displays a statue of him wrestling a bovine. |
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Tradition has it that in 1903, in Rockdale, Texas, a stubborn Texas
Longhorn steer absolutely refused to cooperate and would not enter a
corral, no matter what. Not only that, but it raised such a ruckus,
pawing and running and acting just generally ornery, that it kept
deliberately scattering the herd. At this point, Bill's patience ran out
and he got, to say the least, angry about the whole situation. He rode
his horse at high speed alongside the cantankerous, rampaging ruminant,
jumped off his steed onto the back of the willful critter, and wrestled
that beeve down to the ground with tremendous strength as he held onto
its formidable horns. The Longhorn kept resisting, whereupon Bill bit it
on its lower lip and slammed the steer onto the dirt. People were so impressed that large numbers of them would pay cash money to see Bill Pickett "bulldog" steers. |
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