EVENTS
Rodeo Clown
Steer Wrestler
Ken Boen, a farm boy from Danville, Illinois, created one of rodeo’s most famous comedy acts, “Ken Boen and the Old Gray Mare.” Once he was thrown from the horse and landed in a hog pen. The resulting laughter gave him the idea for a comedy act. Boen and Nellie Gray performed nine times at Madison Square Garden and often at rodeos at Denver, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Houston, and Calgary.
Born in 1918, Boen entered professional rodeo in the 1940s, contesting in bulldogging and steer roping, performing his act, and bullfighting. He holds a record for winning the steer wrestling at Denver, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Houston in the same year. In 1946 he broke the world’s record of 15.33 seconds, set in 1937.
Ken Boen’s act became very popular across the nation. He was a featured performer on Ed Sullivan’s and Roy Rogers’ television shows, the first rodeo comedian to perform a horse act on coast-to-coast television. He retired in the mid-1970s and resides in Arkansas.
