Because rodeo evolved from ranch work and gradually found its way into the arenas of towns and cities, no exact date can be attached to the start of the sport.

However, rodeo certainly was a product of the rugged plains of the American West, most likely originating during the great cattle drives of the late 1800s.

The first riding and roping contests probably were impromptu affairs, perhaps the result of chance meetings on trails and at rail heads. Ranch outfits often would get together and match their best hands in exhibitions of skill.

Those get-togethers grew into loosely organized contests that soon became anticipated annual events. On a day whose date might be argued forever, rodeo, the only professional sport derived from the skills of the workplace, was born.

Though popular as it was colorful, rodeo lacked organization until the 1920s, when the Rodeo Association of America named its first annual champions. The association was composed of rodeo committees and promoters from throughout North America.

The first lasting organizational effort, though, didn’t take place until 1936, when contestants rebelled against promoters and demanded fair prize money, consistency in judging, and honest advertising of their sport.

The contestants called their group the Cowboys’ Turtle Association because they were low to act, but had finally stuck out their necks for their cause.

The name endured until 1945 when the group became the Rodeo Cowboys Association. In 1975, the organization changed its name to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. The PRCA moved into its permanent home in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1979.

In 1987, the PRCA reorganized its management structure and hired its first commissioner, Lewis Cryer. Upon Cryer’s retirement in 1998, the PRCA turned to veteran athletics administrator Stephen J. Hatchell.

Each year since the ’87 restructure has brought continued growth in sponsorship participation and prize money. The National Finals Rodeo, which offered a purse of $900,000 in 1984, hiked its prize money to $2.2 million by 1989. By 1999, that figure had doubled.

With membership totals exceeding 11,000, the PRCA is the world’s largest and oldest governing body of professional rodeo. In 1998, the PRCA sanctioned 703 rodeos in 42 states and four Canadian provinces.