EVENTS
Bareback Bronc Rider, Champion, 1953-1955, 1961
Born in 1929 at Pampa, Texas, Eddy Akridge began rodeoing in 1945 and joined the RCA in 1948. Some of Akridge’s noteworthy rodeo accomplishments include All-Around Champion Cowboy in 1949 at both the Pendleton Roundup and the Calgary Stampede. In 1953, he was the IRA’s World Champion Bareback Rider, and he won PRCA World Champion Bareback Rider in 1953, 1954, 1955, and again in 1961.
Eddy Akridge and his country-western band entertained at the NFR Welcome Committee Party from 1985 to 1994, and at the World Championship Awards Banquet from 1985 to 1992. He was inducted into the PRCA Rodeo Hall of Champions in Colorado Springs in 1979. Akridge also featured in the 1991 ESPN special, Cowboy-Classic, and in the same year he hosted the PRCA Dodge City Roundup and Cowboy Golf Invitational honoring him.
In 1991, he was selected “Man of the Year” by the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association and, in 1995, Gist Buckle Company presented a tribute to Akridge commemorating “American Rodeo Legends.”
Eddy Akridge passed away in 2011.
