EVENTS
All-Around Champion Cowboy, 1936
Steer Roper, Champion, 1933, 1936
Born at Rogers, Arkansas, in 1899, John Bowman grew up in the Oklahoma hills near Beggs, where he learned the cowboy trade on his father’s ranch. At age 14 he joined the Booger Red Wild West Show. He made his first professional ride at the Beggs rodeo in 1915.
At first, rodeo was Bowman’s hobby, enjoyed while he cowboyed on ranches in West Texas and New Mexico, but it soon became a lifelong profession. Competing in all the major rodeos, he always drew top money in the steer-wrestling and calf-roping events. He captured the RCA steer-roping championship in 1933 and 1936, and in 1936 he earned the all-around title. He also won the IRA steer roping title in 1945 and 1946.
Always a contender, he was known on the circuit as “Tackhead” because he could take hard punishment. In his later years he lived in Oakdale, California. After a lifetime of professional competition, John Bowman died in 1959 at San Francisco.
