EVENTS
Bronc Rider
Steer Roper
Rodeo Livestock Contractor
A quiet, unassuming man, Johnnie Mullens is remembered as the one of the sport’s best judges of bucking horses. Born 1884 in Granbury, Texas, Mullens at age 10 went to work on a ranch in Indian Territory, and he also cowboyed on ranches in New Mexico and Texas. In 1908 he joined the famed 101 Ranch and Wild West Show and worked as a ranch hand in the off season.
Working as a part-time cowboy, Johnnie Mullens bought ranchers’ “outlaw” horses to sell as bucking stock. In 1912 Guy Weadick chose him to manage the livestock for the first Calgary Stampede, the first big-money rodeo in North America. In 1923 Mullens handled the string for Tex Rickard’s Madison Square Garden event. A master showman, Mullens drove the bucking stock loose from the railroad yard, through the streets of New York City, to the Garden.
After working for many years as an arena director, Mullens left rodeo at age 72 to cowboy in Arizona. He retired at age 88 after breaking a hip in a fall from a horse. Johnnie Mullens, “the bucking horse man,” died in 1978 in California.
