EVENTS
Saddle Bronc Rider
Bareback Bronc Rider
According to his cousin, Will Rogers, Rufus Rollens was one of the best bronc riders who ever lived. Born in 1891 near Claremore, Oklahoma, Rollens gained experience with horses on the family farm. In the pre-World War I years, he moved to Montana where he broke mounts for the U.S. Army.
In a brilliant rodeo career that lasted only from 1913 to 1919, Rufus Rollens dominated the bronc-riding events. Competing all across the United States and Canada, he won the World Championship trophy at Calgary in 1913. Three years later he captured the bareback riding crown at Chicago and the saddle-bronc title at New York. Rollens was the first cowboy to make a qualified ride on the notorious bronc, Tipperary, and in 1917 he rode Blue Jay, the most infamous bucking horse since Steamboat.
In the 1930s Rufus Rollens produced a Wild West show/rodeo that traveled throughout mid-America. Long ignored by rodeo historians because of a prison record, he is now acknowledged as one of the sport’s greatest all-around cowboys. Rufus Rollens died in 1972.
