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10 FLAGP0LE.C0M • JUNE 1, 2005
DAREDEVILS
American sports culture is as diverse as it is divergent NBA
hopefuls, competitive cheerleaders and freestyle BMXicans struggle,
fail and prosper in states of mutual obliviousness. A legend in one
milieu can easily die unknown to the readers of People. Indeed, the
world of sport has never been wider.
Even stiU, itfs odd that a seemingly home-breweo concoction
Uke rodeo should become marginal But facts must be faced: name a
rod^o star with even half the recognition of a Paris Hilton hanger-
on. Exactly. Couple this with the growing suburbanization of the
populace, and the rodeo is now as exotic as ice curling to the
average Haitian.
W.K. Stratton's Chasing The Rodeo: On Wild Rides and Big Dreams,
Broken Hearts and Broken Bones, and One Man's Search for the West
(Harcourt New York, 2005) makes the sport seem familiar even if
the book defies easy categorization. Native Oklahoman Stratton's
love for bronc and bull riding is practically a birthright, as his bio
logical father was a rodeo bum (with the emphasis on bum), and his
mother a certified cowgirl His book is part rodeo memoir, part
series of profiles on rodeo greats and a survey of the sport's culture
and folklore.
One of Chasing's great strengths comes in its unearthing of his
torical nuggets. Who knew, for example, that an African-American
cowboy named Bill Pickett single-handedly invented bulidogging, or
steer wrestling, and went on to become one of the sport's first
super stars? After gaining props from the likes of President Teddy
Roosevelt, Pickett went on to star in silent films comprised of all
African-American casts that attempted not to engage in crude
stereotypes. However, his star bona fides didn't protect him from
Jim Crow, which consigned him to sleep with the livestock while
traveling by train. By way of
compliments, his fellow cow
boys bestowed such gems as,
"Bill's hide was black, but his
heart was white." Gulp.
Ultimately what Stratton
seems to be chasing is an
authentic American ritual that
takes the stuff of hard work
and transforms it into a cele
bration of hard play. As such,
he attempts to settle the
thorny debate on where the
rodeo originated. While often
described as "the only spec
tator sport originating
entirely in the United States"
with towns like Prescott
Arizona and Pecos, Texas
sniping for the designation as
its birthplace, Stratton claims that like so many "American" goods,
rodeo was made in Mexico. In feet he contends that it predates the
cowboy era by several centuries, since it was the rancheros of colo
nial New Spain that hosted charreadas during the annual roundup,
where competitive horseplay gave birth to today's rodeo events.
In an age of mass consumption, the question of authenticity is
often conflated with fashion. Historical accuracy takes a backseat
to the kind of branding not familiar to most cowhands. Stratton
chronicles the jeans companies that struggled to make themselves
"the" premiere rodeo denim. For years, he was convinced Levis were
the end all arid be all of cowboy wear, only to find that in the 21st
Century, Wrangler cornered the market AU this is to say nothing of
the feet that real cowboys wore chaps, not jeans. Stratton frets over
the rush to position rodeo as the next NASCAR, a breakout sport
that is both a brand and a demographic unto itself.
For all Stratton's reporting, his personal reflections make the
book most compelling. As he's chasing the rodeo Zeitgeist he's
chasing the ghost of his biological father, 'Cowboy Don." While this
quest is less than glorious, rodeo is one of the few traces Stratton
has to his dad, who left his mom when he was an infant A prodi
gious drinker and ladies man, this Denver native son was never
much of a star and eventually wound up punching a clock as a con
struction worker. After a string of failed marriages and relationships,
he died broke and mostly alone. While Stratton doesn't advance
such an argument ifs hard to deny the connection between
"chasing the rodeo' and the larger voyage for paternal communion.
Whether its baseball or bulidogging, sports are one of very few
avenues by which a sense of manhood is conveyed.
Chasing The Rodeo may not satisfy hardcore fens, though they
will benefit from its historical detail And while there's an excessive
amount of banal personal narratives, there's enough to this journey
to make it worth the trouble of saddling up and following along.
John Dicker
John Dicker is a Denver-based miter.
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