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Steer Wrestler
One of the great bulldoggers in early rodeo, Mike Hastings was born in 1891 at Casper, Wyoming. He broke wild horses and worked as a lumberjack in his youth. Tremendously powerful, Hastings became known as “the Iron Man of steer wrestling.”
Mike Hastings entered his first rodeo in 1910 at Laramie, Wyoming, where he competed in bronc riding, calf roping, and steer wrestling. By 1916 he was specializing in bulldogging and continued to compete through the 1930s. When off the circuit, Hastings worked as stock foreman for the Colonel W. T. Johnson and Gene Autry rodeos.
Mike Hastings retired from rodeo in 1940. Always a sound judge of livestock, he served as foreman of the Cimarron Ranch near Putman Valley, New York, until his death in 1965. He is remembered as one of rodeo’s great personalities
