EVENTS
Bareback Bronc Rider, Champion, 1948
Team Roper
Sonny Tureman was born at Wenatchee, Washington, in November of 1918. He grew up in Prairie City, Oregon, where he learned to break horses for area ranches and army remounts. He began his rodeo career in 1941, joined the Cowboys Turtle Association in 1942 and soon won amateur bronc riding titles at Cheyenne and Pendleton.
Following a three-year stint in World War II, Tureman pursued bareback bronc riding full-time. In 1946 he ranked fourth in the world, and in 1948 he captured the bareback championship. In 1951 and 1953, he finished in third and fourth place, respectively. Following a debilitating auto accident, Tureman took up team roping, first with Ace Berry and later with Alan Keller. With them, he made it into the National Finals Rodeo in 1965 and 1972.
Sonny Tureman was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame at Colorado Springs in 1979. He died in Oakdale, California, in 1995.
