EVENTS
All-Around Champion Cowboy, 1929
Saddle Bronc Rider, Champion, 1929, 1931
Distinguished as the first all-around champion in professional rodeo, Earl Thode was born at Belvidere, South Dakota, in 1900. Trained at breaking horses on his father’s ranch, he was a natural bronc rider and entered rodeo competition around 1918.
Earl Thode rodeoed in England and Mexico in addition to competing successfully at Calgary, Cheyenne, Denver, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. In his time, he rode and won on such tough horses as Pancho Villa, The Crying Jew, Goodbye Dan, and Five Minutes to Midnight. Thode also served as an arena director at the Belle Fourche and Tucson rodeos.
Earl Thode retired from rodeo in 1938 after about twenty years of competition. For several years he ran a ranch operation near Casa Grande, Arizona. Thode drowned in a boating accident near his Vernon, Arizona, home in 1964.
