101 Ranch Rodeo Adding Team Roping To Program August 22-24
An event fast growing in popularity, but new to the 101 Ranch Rodeo, has been added to the program for 1974. Dates are Thursday, Friday and Saturday, August 22, 23 and 24.

It is team roping, the only event in rodeo in which two cowboys' work together. It is not unusual for 100 to 120 teams to be entered.

At many rodeos the event continues well into the early morning hours and spectators, who have learned to appreciate the skill of team roping, remain to see the fast steer roped.

Team roping dates back to early range days, when catching cattle by the horns and hind feet became a simple way to doctor injuries or brand.

Rodeo's version is a speeded up contest against time. Highly popular in California, Arizona and Nevada rodeos, with bankers, doctors, and dentists among the ardent competitors, team roping is not one of the sport's standard events

Leo Camarillo of Donald, Ore., won $20,693 in 1973 to set a new winning record and take the championship for the second consecutive year. This was just in the rodeos where the committee put up prize money. It is believed that he doubled, that figure by competing in many of the numerous team roping jackpots that are found around the country.

Team roping at the 101 Ranch Rodeo will be a jackpot event.

The event calls for a man on a horse known as a "header" to chase the steer and throw his loop around the horns, then turn the animal back to where the "heeler" can get in position to throw loop around the steer's heels.

Both men must "dally" or wrap the ropes around the saddle horns after making their catches. Time is called when both horses turn to face each other, with the steer the middle and ropes taut. Entry fee for team roping $20. Frank Braden is contractor for the event.

The rodeo ticket office" open at the Chamber of Commerce 112 North Third, at a.m. Monday, August 5.

Advance. sale tickets will distributed to local grocers a supermarkets on or before that date.

Thursday is family night—bargain night—with general admission $2 for adults and $1 children under 12. Only box seats will be reserved.

Buck LeGrand, Quail Dobbs Named Clowns, Bullfighters For 101 Rodeo
Rodeo clowns—bullfighters, heroes of the arena—provide as much entertainment and excitement for fans as do the competing cowboys.

This year will be no exception. Two of the best in the professional world of rodeo will be in the 101 Ranch Rodeo arena protecting the cowboys from the fury of the bulls.

The 1974 rodeo will be Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, August 22-24.

Thursday night's performance will be bargain night or family night. The adults will pay only $2 and children under 12 will be admitted for $1.

Only box seats will be reserved Thursday. Grandstand seats will not be reserved.

Tickets for Friday and Saturday are $3 purchased in advance, and $3.50 at the gate. Tickets purchased at grocery stores must be turned in at the rodeo office in the Chamber of Commerce for a reserved seat.

Children who are carried and sit on the lap of a parent will not require a ticket. If the child takes a separate seat, he must have a ticket.

This has been the policy since RCA rodeo came to Ponca City.

The clowns who will be making targets of themselves so the cowboy can make his way to safety when he dismounts intentionally or unintentionally—will be Buck LeGrand and Quail Dobbs.

Buck needs no introduction to 101 Ranch Rodeo fans as he has clowned a majority of the rodeos since the start of professional rodeo here in 1960. He is a favorite with cowboys and spectators.
Dobbs—clown, barrel man, specialty acts—has been in the business of professional rodeo as a clown and bullfighter for ten years. He began his career while in high school, competing as a bareback bronc rider and a bull rider.

It wasn't long before Quail decided that clowning was going to be more lucrative financially for him than actual competition.

Quail is one of the few rodeo clowns today who works the barrel and fights bulls, too, as each takes a special skill.

More than one cowboys owes his life to the quickness and fearlessness of these two men.

Danger And Action In Bull Riding
Rodeo Coming To Town; Wear Western Clothes
It's time to go western!

Rodeo is coming to Ponca City next week and garb of the Old 'West or of the modern professional cowboy athlete is tops in fashion.

The 101 Ranch Rodeo opens with the colorful grand entry at 8 p.m. Thursday, which is family, or bargain, night and grandstand seats are only $1 and $2.

Friday and Saturday nights all seats are reserved.

Each year the 101 Ranch Rodeo draws some of the outstanding bull riders in the Rodeo Cowboy Association. They enter, in such great numbers there is usually an after rodeo so each cowboy will have a chance to be in the money.

Undoubtedly bull riding is the most popular event for spectators for nothing compares with it for danger and action.

Bulls, with a cross of Brahma blood are incredibly fast and can be fatally dangerous.

Because bulls will attack a horse, pickup men can't be used and the rider who leaves the back of a bull has only the clown to help him. Clowns often save a cowboy from serious injury and—dramatic as it may sound—death.

Bull riding has the most entries of the three riding events, and there are reasons for this.

The number of animals in the drawn whom a man can win money if he rides them—is far greater in this event.

And, for the beginner, there is less embarrassment in being thrown from a bull, which can make a champion look like an apprentice.

A bull rider uses a rope which is looped around the animal's middle. The rider puts his gloved hand in a loop in the rope and another cowboy pulls the slack out of the rope. When the rope's tightness feels correct to the rider, he takes the free end and lays it across his palm, wraps it once behind his riding hand, lays it across his palm again, and clenches with all his strength.

When a rider bucks off away from his riding hand, his weight pulls down on the wrap behind his knuckles and he's often "hung up" and helpless until the clown can jerk the end of, the rope free, or the bull finally throws him loose.

Shriners To Ride Tri-Sport Cycles In Rodeo Parade
Seven members of the Kay County Shrine Club have purchased tri-sport cycles and will give their first riding exhibition in the 101 Rodeo parade at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Members of the Akdar Trisport Club are Robert Gregg, president; Kenneth Witteman of Perry, secretary-treasurer; W.E. (Gene) Phillips, Melvin Murphy, Bob Morford, Lou Endsley and Don Gregg.

The organizational meeting and first practice session was held August 11. The club will be appearing at various parades and other functions in the future. They have been invited to ride in the Cherokee Strip parade at Perry, September 14.

Phones Busy As Cowboys Call In Entries For Rodeo Starting Thursday
It is going to he "hard nosed" rodeo in Ponca City Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights—just like the National Finals in Oklahoma City. There will be no big name "star." The cowboys will be the stars.

There will be entertainment in the arena between the rodeo events by one of the nation's top clowns—Quail Dobbs—but no "Star."

Those who know Quail already are laughing. He is one clown whose act you can see over and over, night after night, you still giggle, one cowboy said this morning.

Within half an hour after the rodeo office opened for entries this morning, 50 cowboys and cowgirls had called in for a number.

By noon there were 140 entries—more than there have been altogether in some year's.

In 1973 there were 217 contestants who added their fees to the purse of $3,750 to make up a total prize package of more than $9,000.

Among the first to call in today was Jim Dix of N. Collie, West Australia, who was fifth in national standings for 1973, winning $20,149 as a bareback bronc rider. He already has collected $13,650 this year, as of last Sunday.

T. J. Walter, a two-event man who is always high in bareback and bull riding, is another of the nationally known cowboys who has entered.

A third top contender is Sammie Groves, who calls Ponca City his home as well as New Deal, Tex. He also was in the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City last December, finishing 13th in the national standings in saddle bronc. He also competes in bull riding.

First performance of the 101 Ranch Rodeo will be 8 p.m. Thursday. This is family night with adults admitted for $2 and children for $1. Only box seats are reserved.

Friday and Saturday night performances will be at 8 p.m. and all seats will be reserved.

Top Cowboys Here For 101 Rodeo
Prize Cash To $13,180 This Year
At 8 o'clock tonight, the 101 Ranch Rodeo for 1974 will get under way with the serpentine grand entry.

In the chutes cowboys will be getting ready to go out in an effort take home a part of the $13,180 purse.

The 302 cowboys who called in their entries Wednesday include 33 who this year are among the top 15 in their specialty events. Seven of them are among ,the top 15 in All Around.

Because of the large entry list there will be only one head for each except in team roping, where the men will get two head. Friday and Saturday morning the slack will be run.

While the crowd is coming in—tonight is family night, $2 for adults and $1 for children—the 1974 rodeo band will play. This year it is formed by members of the Municipal Band, which played eight concerts this summer under the baton of Bill Anderson.

At the rodeo grounds spectators will have an opportunity to purchase memorial medallions of the 101 Ranch. This year the White House, in which the greats on many nations were entertained, is pictured.

Orders will be taken for the book "The 101 Ranch," which was re-published for the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Cherokee Strip.

Rain-Soaked Fans See Rodeo Open
The rains came but the crowd stayed.
The unusually enthusiastic rodeo fans at the opening night of the 101 Ranch Rodeo cheered cowboys and cowgirls whether they made a good ride or time or received a goose egg.

And rain, or no rain, there will be rodeo tonight beginning at eight o'clock.

It may be too wet for the band instruments, but contestants will pay no attention and again try for good scores as they have only one head of stock to work on for a slice of the largest purse in the history of the 101 Ranch Rodeo and cheers from  the fans.

Several of the ranking top 15 cowboys will be out tonight and again Saturday night. The Alsbaugh stock is always good which helps the cowboy to score high. The 2 p.m. parade is open to all who want to enter. It forms at Union and Grand.

Saturday night the all around cowboy will be announced and receive the Guy Shultz memorial trophy.

The new queen will be presented a trophy saddle and the traditional bouquet of red roses. The runners-up will receive a $100 savings bond, a $75 cashier's check, $50 of Avon cosmetics, and a $25 gift certificate. The queen contestant selling the most tickets will be presented a trophy buckle by the Rodeo Foundation.

Two additional gifts were announced Thursday night. The winner in the girls barrel racing and the cowboy winning the most money will receive sports jackets.

Saturday night there will be dancing from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. to the music of the Wandering Okies with Denzil Alcorn, a Nashville recording artist.

History Professor At West Texas Announcer For This Year's Rodeo
Behind the microphone at the 101 Ranch Rodeo this year is a doctor.

He is Charles (Bud) Townsend, PhD, associate professor of history at West Texas State University at Canyon.

His background includes riding bulls, announcing and writing a book, which is now being published.

Bud grew up in a ranching community and learned to ride and rope. This was natural to his environment and eventually he began to enter rodeos.

That was at age 14.

His father had died when he was eight years old and his mother worried about his competing in the arena.

"My older brother told me I couldn't ride. He was older and considerably bigger than I was, I so I did not ride," Bud said.

But he continued to go to rodeos and on Labor Day in 1946 the announcer didn't show up. Rodeo officials were wondering what they were going to do when someone said "Get Bud to do it."

That was the beginning of his 29-year career as an announcer. During his early years as a rodeo performer, Townsend got a reputation as a great mimic of rodeo announcers.

"I got up fool-like and kidlike that day. No one but a kid or a fool would try such a thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and I've been announcing ever since."

When he graduated from Nocona High School in 1948 he had no desire to continue his education. That year he gained professional status with the RCA as an announcer and for six years he traveled the rodeo circuit, booking his own jobs.

In 1955 Bud decided that perhaps college was for him and in the next 13 years he acquired three degrees: a bachelor's from Midwestern University at Wichita Falls, Tex., a master's from Baylor University and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin.

By this time he was married and the twins were on their way. He received some outstanding fellowships to continue his work in history. But it was necessary to supplement these, which he did through rodeo announcing in the summer.

His brother was the one who influenced him to continue his announcing career in the summer time.

Townsend says the world of rodeo changes like everything else. On the whole, the professional cowboy is better educated than when he began 29 years ago" many of them holding college degrees.

In his leisure time, Bud wrote a book, "San Antonio Rose, the life and music of Bob Wills," which the University of, Illinois requested the right to publish as one in its series on Music in America.

Where he once traveled across the country calling rodeos, Townsend now confines himself to working shows in the Rocky Mountain area.

"After all, if you spend most I of your time driving, you don't have time to fish," he says.