Thomas Joseph "T.J." Walter

Thomas Joseph “T.J.” Walter was born February 27, 1949, in Watkins, Iowa. Raised on an Iowa farm with 12 siblings, Walter began riding calves at age 10, bulls at age 13 and bareback horses at age 14. As a high school student, Walter competed in the National High School Rodeo Association (NHSRA), winning the Iowa High School Rodeo bull riding and bareback championships in 1966 and the NHSRA bareback and All-Around championships in 1967. While attending college in Casper, Wyoming, Walter qualified for the NIRA finals in 1967 and 1968. Following college, he competed in the RCA/PRCA for 15 years, making 12 NFR appearances in bareback riding. In addition to competing in all the major rodeos in the United States and Canada, Walter won the bareback riding at the Presidential Rodeo in Washington, D.C., held in honor of President Ronald Reagan, and he earned a Gold Medal as coach of America’s 1988 Olympic Rodeo Team. A gold card member of the PRCA, Canadian Pro Rodeo Association and the Australian Pro Rodeo Association, Walter served on the PRCA Board of Directors for 11 years and as director of PRCA Rodeo Administration for 14 years. He was inducted into the Iowa High School Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame. Walter died January 1, 2017.