Arizona Ropers

Arizona Ropers . . . . . the Best in the West . . . . .

To the Grand National Livestock Exposition, horse show and rodeo held last November at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, came the finest riders and ropers in the country. Here, in razor-sharp competition, the boys of the “suicide circuit” contested for top-drawer honors, plus no small amount of cash and fame. This was the pay-off! The big show they all had been looking forward to from the Pendleton Roundup to Madison Square Garden! Here the I. R. A., by a complicated point system, would crown the all-around 1947 champion and select the winners of the various events.

During the last night performance of the Cow Palace show, a tall, good-looking cowboy rode into the chute to rope his last calf. His name was Marion Getzwiller, of Benson, Arizona, and he was mounted on his big bay roping horse, “Cherry.” A short piggin' string between his teeth, his two ropes perfectly adjusted, “Getz” had but one thought in mind as he waited the moment when the calf would be turned out into the arena: to win the roping he would have to tie this calf in less than 17 2/5 seconds.

The barrier whipped free from across the mouth of the chute. The calf was on its way. “Cherry,” breakinglike a race horse, was in full gallop after four strides. The horse checked its speed at the proper distance from the calf and Marion threw his loop a small, fast circle -which found its mark around the animal's neck. He flipped the slack out of the rope and swung from his saddle. Hind hooves biting into the tanbark, “Cherry” came to a sliding stop. “Getz” went to the calf like a sudden gust of wind. He wrestled it down, jerked the piggin' string from his mouth, and popped a loop around the right foreleg of the kicking calf. He gathered up the *hind legs. Two wraps and a half-hitch! His hands flashed in the air. It was over.

Cy Taillon spoke through the loud speaker: “The time for Marion Getzwiller” the rodeo announcer paused for effect “16 3/5 seconds.” Marion had done it. He had won the calf roping literally by a split second. Under intense pressure this Arizona roper had bested about forty of the finest ropers in the world in the greatest of all cowboy contests. His average time on four calves was 18 4/5 seconds. His winnings were close to $800.

After the show was over the times and points of the individual contestants in the other roping events were brought up to date for the year. Another Arizonan, Buckshot Sorrells, was named 1947 world's champion calf roper. Although Buck placed third at San Francisco, his point total in circuit competition throughout the year was above other roping contestants.

Buck hails from Tucson, where he started his professional roping career fourteen years ago. He is thirtythree years old, a stout, handsome fellow with a good sense of humor, and every bit the great calf roper he proved himself last year. One of the first big rodeos he contested in was the Prescott Frontier Days show in 1933. Buck didn't win anything at Prescott that year. But since then he has come a long way.

In winning the calf roping title one of the most coveted honors in the rodeo game Buck Sorrells traveled a distance approximate to halfway around the globe. He roped in some eighty shows, among them Tucson and Phoenix, Salinas, Pendleton, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City, Denver, Boston and New York, and won $27,000, including entrance fees. Buck was carried to his calves on the back of "Rusty," a great little sorrel roping horse. With "Rusty's" speed and "calf sense," Buck was able consistently to out-rope and out-tie hundreds of the best performers in the country. Buck and "Rusty" are hard to beat.

Team roping calls for coordinated skill of riders, together with smart horses. Here are Arizona's Jim Brister and Jim Hudson.

The team tying champ for the past year, John Rhodes, is from Oracle, Arizona. He has been roping for many years and has held the championship in 1936 and 1938. He is one of the most proficient men in the business at pulling a loop tight on a steer's two hind legs. John won most of his points roping with another Arizonan, Asbury Schell of Coolidge.

This team-John Rhodes mounted on his little white horse, “Pat,” and Asbury Schell on “Cowboy,” a bay quarter horse-won about $14,000 roping at shows along the Pacific coast last summer. Some of their first place times were made at Salinas, Tulare, and Turlock, Calif.. and at Klamath, Ore. Asbury, winner of the national team tying award in 1937 and 1939, made the horn catches. and John did spectacular work in picking up the heels.

Last December at the Kinsley ranch, Amado, half-way between Nogales and Tucson, this winning team met two other splendid Arizona ropers, Fred Darnell and Olan Sims, in a five steer roping match. Wagering ran high among the cowboys and local ranchers as to the outcome, with the Rhodes team slightly favored. John and Asbury roped and tied their first two steers in 16 4/5 and 16 1/5 seconds respectively. Fred and Olan's time was 19 1/5 and 17 2/5 seconds.

Then it happened! And this occurrence is cited merely as an example of the bad breaks that can sway the difference between victory and defeat. Asbury made a nice catch on his third steer. He jerked the slack out of his rope fast and, in doing so, flipped the loop off of both horns. Using his second rope, he caught the steer at the end of the arena. John threw twice before snagging the heels. With four loops thrown they tied the animal in 39 3/5 seconds.

This bit of bad luck caused them to lose the match. However, the Darnell team deserved to win. Both men roped beautifully. Fred Darnell is one of the world's greatest team ropers.

John Rhodes and Asbury Schell both have roping sons. Tommy Rhodes has been winning money all over the southwest for more than a dozen years. He teams a lot with his father a good combination and is a very fast man roping calves. In 1943 he was world's champion

steer roper. In 1944 he led the cowboys in team tying. Eddie Schell, although only eighteen years old, already is competing with the best ropers in the state and making them all hustle. His dad lets him rope off “Cowboy,” and the way Eddie leaves that horse, after roping a calf, is fast and a style all his own. He recently won the Junior World's Championship rodeo at Phoenix. He's a good roper now. In a few years he should be one of the top men in Arizona.

Carl Arnold didn't win the I. R. A. steer roping championship last year, but he still is considered by most authorities the best man in the business when it comes to matched roping. Carl is from Buckeye, Arizona. A very adept cowboy at subduing the big steers singlehanded, he is a veteran of more than a quarter of a century of roping competition. Carl finds it more profitable these days to exhibit his skill at match ropings, at which he is a great money winner, rather than follow the rodeo circuit. But he never fails to appear at two famous showsCheyenne and Pendleton-where steer roping still is tolerated. He was winner of the event last year at Cheyenne.

Perhaps Carl won his greatest fame in a series of steer ropings with the late “Wild Horse” Bob Crosby. They were matched against one another five times in New Mexico and once at Chandler, Ariz. Crosby came out on top only once. Carl won the others. The Chandler match, on Nov. 3, 1946, was the scene of their last meeting. Carl was the winner and pocketed the $5,000 purse. At that time he was unanimously declared world's champion steer roper a title, although he has been beaten several times since, that many people believe is still his. This feeling is prevalent because of the fact that Carl Arnold has never been out-roped in a match by the same man two out of three times.

Other Arizonans noted far and wide for their skill in the “catch-loop” events make up a formidable list. Among the more famous are the names of Everett Bowman, Hillside; Richard Merchant, Amado; Joe Bassett, Globe; Jim Hudson, Willcox; Pete Grubb, Florence; Jim Brister, Duncan; Lex Connelly and the Glenn brothers, Benson; the late C. C. (Bud) Parker, Cliff Whatley, Maynard Gaylor and the Wilson brothers, all of Tucson, and David Stout

John Rhodes of Oracle (left) shown working with Jim Brister is team tying champ. He and Schell highlighted coast shows. and Chuck Sheppard, Phoenix, Ariz.

These men are rightfully claimed to be the best athletes on horseback in the world. The records last year proved it. What they do to earn a living with a horse and twenty-two feet of rope is a spectacle of skill and coordination. Roping today has taken on a standard of competitive excellence as sharp-pointed as one finds in any exacting sport. This has come about because of the ever-increasing competency of the ropers and the quality of the horses the men now ride.

Could Buck Sorrells have won the calf roping championship last year if he had ridden the circuit on a mount inferior to "Rusty?" A foolish question, perhaps, and one that cannot be answered, but it is, however, provender for thought on the subject. For "Rusty" is one of the speediest calf horses in the country and was of great assistance to Buck in winning the title. It is not uncommon for horses of this calibre to change hands for $2,500 or more. And when a roper develops and trains a mount that has everything a quick-turning, fast-stopping speedy pony, with a calm disposition and good cow sense he'll hardly sell it for any price. This is the type of rope horse that will make a champion out of its rider.

It is not difficult to see why Arizona and the southwest produces great roping talent. Aside from the fact that the southwest, including parts of Mexico, was the birthplace of range utility roping, climate cannot be overlooked. In those parts of the states directly bordering northern Mexico, the weather is never so severe that cattle cannot be handled comfortably the year around. To the rancher, working cattle and roping are practically synonymous. Southern Arizona cowhands get a lot of practice, and continual practice, after all, is what helps to make a champion.

There is a marked difference between roping on the range and that done in the arena. The rodeo man is out for time-fast time! The working cowpoke can go about his job in a somewhat more leisurely fashion. But on the cactus and brush-infested deserts of Arizona, the young cowboy learns to be quick and alert in the use of his rope. He learns to make the most of his opportunities in clear stretches of land. He learns to throw a hard. fast loop.

When he enters his first contest he already is a roper of above average ability. All he has to pick up then is a few tricks of speed and the knack of working under high-tension pressure.

Roping is fun! There's no getting away from it. Once the "roping bug" gets into your system the disease is incurable. This is probably the one main reason for there being so many really great ropers. Once a young fellow wins a few shows, gains confidence in himself, and has the necessary physical make-up to continue-why! -he can't be stopped. Every dime he earns will be spent on ropes, saddles and horses. He'll rope all day long. And he'll rope at night, too, if he can rig up a satisfactory lighting arrangement. Someday this boy will win the Madison Square Garden calf roping event.

1948 promises to be one of the biggest years in the sport of rodeo. The out-of-state boys will have to do some fast and fancy roping to take the titles away from Arizona.

Two expert performers at finish of fast event.