EVENTS
Steer Roping Champion, 1939
Timed events were Dick Truitt’s kingdom in the 1930s and 1940s. Born in 1904 at Rockwall, Texas, he made Oklahoma his home. Truitt first rodeoed at Coalgate, Oklahoma, in the early 1920s.
Over a 30-year career Dick Truitt won every major rodeo in the United States. Competing in steer roping, steer wrestling, and calf roping, he accumulated 28 saddles, 20 trophy cups, and 10 buckles. He also captured many all-around titles. Truitt competed at Cheyenne for 21 straight years, from 1926 to 1957, and in 1939 he took the all-around honors at Madison Square Garden. A born competitor, Truitt was willing to try anything once. At a Kansas rodeo in the 1930s, with his pal Bob Crosby hazing, Truitt bulldogged a buffalo for a prize of ten dollars.
Also a trainer of fine roping horses, Truitt owned the legendary Streak, an animal that, at the time of its death in 1937, had carried more cowboys to championships than any other mount. One of the sport’s greatest ropers, Dick Truitt faded from the scene in the late 1950s and died in 1978.
