EVENTS
Saddle Bronc Rider
Bareback Bronc Rider
Bull Rider
Rodeo Clown and Bullfighter
Felix Cooper, born at Pelican, Louisiana, in May of 1912, was among the best African-American rodeo contenders of the 1940s and early 1950s. In pursuit of his dream to become a cowboy, he joined Milt Hinkle’s Wild West Show in 1930 and entered his first professional rodeo in 1934. He joined the ranks of the Cowboys Turtle Association (CTA) when it first organized in 1936.
Cooper experienced the racial prejudice then common in American society, often taking fourth-place money for a first-place performance. He rode the great bucking horse, Steamboat, in both 1937 and 1938, and handled other outlaws like Hell’s Angel and Sidecar. His persistence, skill and honesty were such that, in the early 1940s, he served as the first African-American arena judge in professional rodeo — voted in by his cowboy peers. Cooper became a rodeo bullfighter in the late 1930s, and throughout the 1940s and into the 1950s he held a national reputation as one of the best in the sport. He worked for great producers like Colonel Jim Eskew, Harry Rowell, Leo Cremer, Everett Colborn Christian Brothers and Andy Jauregui.
Felix Cooper retired from the arena in 1956. In 1968 he was presented a gold Rodeo Cowboys Association life membership card by then World Champion Cowboy Larry Mahan. Felix Cooper passed away in June, 1997.
