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This Week in the West, Episode 11: Freckles Brown

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Episode 11: Freckles Brown

Howdy folks, it’s the second week of January 2025 and welcome to This Week in The West.

I’m Seth Spillman, broadcasting from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City.

On this podcast, we share stories of the people and events that shaped the history, art and culture of the American West—and those still shaping it today.

Freckles Brown had done a lot of living in his 46 years when he stepped into the arena in Oklahoma City in December of 1967.

He was just a month shy of his birthday, which we remember this week. Brown was born January 18, 1921, so by the late 1960s he was a couple of decades older than some of his bullriding competitors. 

We don’t know if Brown’s life flashed before his eyes that night in ‘67, but if it had, he would have remembered quite a few twists and turns. 

Brown was 16 when he first started competing in rodeos. Warren Granger Brown had been stuck with the nickname Freckles on his first day working on a dairy farm in Arizona. During his teens and 20s, he worked on ranches around the West entering any rodeo he could. 

His first bullriding trophy came in 1941, when he rode a horse 50 miles to a rodeo in Cody, Wyoming, won the event and rode back to the ranch.

However, war would come later in 1941, and Brown quickly enlisted in the Army. He learned artillery and horseshoeing, but then his military career turned secret. Brown was recruited into the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. 

Brown’s job was secretly training Chinese paratroopers for the War in the Pacific. 

When the war ended, Brown had one thing on his mind: Rodeoing full-time, no matter what he had to do to make it happen. 

In those postwar years, he’d lean on his horseshoeing to make it work, shoeing other cowboy’s horses at rodeos so he could pay for his entry. Fortunately for Brown, his winnings started to pile up. His first trip to the NFR came in 1959 with another in 1961. 

In 1962, Brown was 41 and at the top of his game. Sure, he’d had his share of injuries, broken legs, ribs and fingers, but during a bullriding event in Portland, Ore., he was flipped off the bull Black Smoke and landed on his head. He was paralyzed. Emergency surgery and 34 days in traction healed him, but he had to watch that year’s NFR from the crowd. 

Remembering the accident, Brown once said: “I knew I was going to ride again. It was just a question of when.” 

When came nine months later, when Brown climbed back on a bull. By his second ride, he was scoring again. 

The road from the war and the accident to that cold night in Oklahoma City in 1967 lay ahead. 

It’s called The Ride. In rodeo circles, people talk about where they were when it happened, like Babe Ruth’s called shot or Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. 

On one side was Brown, who was getting older but still competing for bullriding titles. On the other side was Tornado, a beast of a bull who had never been ridden. The NFR had named him “The meanest bull alive.” 

Oklahoman sports writer Frank Boggs wrote: “(Tornado’s) reputation had not been gained smelling flowers. He was rodeo’s orneriest critter, a massive assembly of muscle and guts and powerful old bones.”

It was the final bull ride of the night at the ‘67 NFR, and Brown had drawn Tornado. 

Brown remembered later: “A lot of guys would draw him and not even try to ride him. They would just walk away. But I had to give him a go. I knew he was due to be rode. I thought I could do it. I had to give it a try.”

Brown strapped in and felt Tornado’s muscles tighten underneath him. He sat in Chute No. 2 waiting for the gate to swing open.

When it did, Tornado pitched forward, then spun to the right. Brown held tight with his left hand and threw up his right. 

Tornado continued to buck, but in Brown’s mind, everything felt right. The crowd was roaring, so when the whistle blew for eight seconds, a full ride, Brown didn’t hear it. 

He came down off Tornado and the crowd kept it up. They had witnessed rodeo history.

Brown would tell Sports Illustrated: “I stood out there in the middle of the arena with my hat off for the longest time. But the applause didn’t die down. It just kept going on and on. And it wasn’t just the fans. Even the cowboys were clapping and yelling. I finally walked off, but it didn’t let up any. Finally, I looked up at Clem McSpadden (the general manager of the NFR at the time) and he motioned for me to go back out. So I did. And it started all over again.”

Brown would continue to rodeo after that. Tornado was ridden only four more times, including once again by Brown. 

The bull would retire in 1969 and die in 1972. Tornado is actually buried here on the grounds of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

Brown retired to a ranch in Soper, Oklahoma and mentored young bull riders like Lane Frost. He’d tell the story of The Ride many times. He would say, “This was the greatest and biggest thrill of my rodeo career.”

In 1986, Brown was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame here at The Cowboy. On March 20, 1987 he died of cancer at his ranch. Freckles Brown was 66. 

And with that, we’ll close the chute on this episode of “This Week in The West.”

Our show is produced by Chase Spivey and written by Mike Koehler

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Got a question or a suggestion? Drop us an email at podcast@nationalcowboymuseum.org

We leave you today with some words from legendary bull rider Lane Frost on his mentor Freckles Brown: “He wasn’t the most talented bullrider but he had a lot of try in him. He never thought he was going to get bucked off until his head hit the ground. He was my idol, teacher and friend.”

Much obliged for listening, and remember, come Find Your West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. 

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