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National Rodeo Hall of Fame
Inducted in 1955
Louis Brooks

Louis Brooks

1916-1983

Oklahoma

All Around Champion: 1943, 1944

EVENTS
All-Around Champion Cowboy, 1943-1944
Bareback Bronc Rider, Champion, 1942, 1944
Saddle Bronc Rider, Champion, 1943-1944

Born at Fletcher, Oklahoma, in 1916, Louis Brooks cowboyed as a youth on the Cross J Ranch at Nowata. There he rode the famed horse Baldy, which is honored on the NCHF Trail of Great Cow Ponies.

Brooks’ career in rodeo was as meteoric as it was impressive, lasting only from 1940 to 1945. During that six-year period he won two all-around titles and four event titles in bareback and saddle bronc riding. He remains a classic example of a contestant who used rodeo and its earnings to improve his life as a working cowboy.

Upon retiring, Louis Brooks and his wife set up a 100-section Brangus operation in West Texas. Brooks also raised thoroughbred horses, several of which won important races in New Mexico and California. Brooks died in 1983.

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