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July 28: Lane Frost
Howdy folks, it’s the final week of July 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.
He was just 25 years old when the arena went quiet. A rising star in rodeo, a champion who had done what no man had done before. And gone so fast and so soon.
Lane Frost forever changed the sport of bull riding and is a legend fondly remembered this week, on the anniversary of his death on July 30, 1989.
Lane Clyde Frost was born on October 12, 1963, in La Junta, Colorado. Rodeo was in his blood—his father, Clyde, was a saddle bronc and bareback rider, and Lane was climbing on dairy calves before he was out of kindergarten.
His mother, Elsie Frost, told a Tulsa, Oklahoma TV station: “He had a little horse that was on rollers, and he just sat on it; he called it his bull. That was one of his first words was ‘bull.’”
By the time he was 10, he was already winning rodeo events in Utah, placing in bareback, calf roping, and calf riding.
After the family moved to Atoka, Oklahoma, Lane’s rise kicked into high gear. He won the National High School Bull Riding Championship in 1981 and claimed the first-ever Youth National Finals title in Fort Worth a year later.
He married barrel racer Kellie Kyle in 1985, and that same year he began competing full-time in the PRCA. His career took off quickly —National Finals Rodeo appearances five years running, a world title in 1987, and the kind of charisma that made folks stop and watch when he climbed on a bull.
Remembered his father Clyde in an interview: “He couldn’t have done any better at what he done; he won the world and that’s what he said from the time whe as little, ‘I’m the world’s champion.”
But maybe no ride says “Lane Frost” like the Challenge of the Champions in 1988. Red Rock, the PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year, had never been successfully ridden—309 cowboys had tried, and 309 had hit the dirt.
The Challenge of the Champions was created as a seven-ride series of man vs. bull. Frost would take on Red Rock on a tour of rodeo events around the West and see if he could be the one to finally finish a ride.
The first match took place at the Red Bluff Round-Up in California. It was Red Rock’s hometown, and the bull had the support of the crowd. Frost said it was the first time he’d heard more people cheer for the bull than him.
He was bucked off in just two seconds on that first ride.
It wasn’t until the third matchup, in Redding, California, that Lane finally got the best of Red Rock, hanging on for the full eight seconds.
The showdown had grabbed the attention of the sports world. By their final ride, Frost and Red Rock’s story had been told by Sports Illustrated, USA Today and NBC.
The last ride was in Spanish Fork, Utah, on July 25, 1988. The series was tied at three wins apiece. And that day, man beat beast.
Frost not only rode for eight seconds that final time, but his ride actually lasted 9.63 seconds.
It was just a little over a year later when Frost competed for the last time. He was at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, having another solid season and looking for his sixth straight trip to the National Finals.
It was a cold, rainy afternoon in Cheyenne, and the arena floor had turned to mud. At 3:30 p.m., Lane Frost and the bull Takin’ Care of Business burst out of Chute #7. Frost delivered a full eight-second ride, scoring 85 points, the kind of ride his fans and competitors had come to expect.
But as Frost dismounted, he landed awkwardly, right in the bull’s line of sight. Takin’ Care of Business caught sight of him, stepped on his chaps, and struck him in the back with his right horn. Though the horn didn’t pierce his skin, the force of the blow caused catastrophic internal injuries.
Lane managed to rise to his feet and signal to his friend, Tuff Hedeman, before collapsing face-first into the muddy arena. The impact had broken several ribs, and one of them had punctured a major artery. He was rushed to the hospital but was pronounced dead at 3:59 p.m. He was just 25 years old.
His funeral drew thousands to Atoka, Oklahoma, and he was laid to rest near his hero, Freckles Brown, in Hugo, Oklahoma.
But Lane’s story didn’t end in Cheyenne.
Hedeman, his best friend, won the world title that year—and rode an extra eight seconds in Lane’s honor. Cody Lambert, another traveling partner, went on to design the protective vest that’s now mandatory in every bullriding event. And the world rediscovered Frost’s story again in the 1994 film 8 Seconds, with Luke Perry portraying the young cowboy.
The Lane Frost/Brent Thurman Award honors the highest-scoring ride at the PBR World Finals.
The Frost family has donated an assortment of Lane Frost’s memorabilia to our museum, including his hat, boots, buckles and rope.
He is a member of the National Rodeo Hall of Fame and the PBR’s Heroes & Legends, both of which have a home here at The Cowboy.
And with that, we’ve ridden our full time on another episode of “This Week in The West.”
Our show is produced by Chase Spivey and written by Mike Koehler.
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We leave you today with the words of Lane Frost: “Don’t be afraid to go after what you want to do and what you want to be, but don’t be afraid to be willing to pay the price.”
Much obliged for listening, and remember, come Find Your West at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
