EVENTS
Bull Rider
Bareback Bronc Rider
Rodeo Clown and Bullfighter
Steer Wrestler
Born in 1904 at Midlothian, Texas, Ralph Fulkerson grew up around the Fort Worth Stock Yards and commenced riding steers and cows as a teenager. He entered his first professional rodeo in 1923, riding bulls and bareback broncs, and went on to contend at most of the larger venues around the United States. He rode at the first London rodeo in 1924 and won the bull riding title at Fort Worth in 1926.
In 1927, Fulkerson bought and trained a small mule named Elko, and the two commenced a rodeo clown act that lasted many years. He performed at the famed Madison Square Garden Rodeo for 21 consecutive years and clowned in Australia in 1938, 1939 and 1940. Because of his small stature, Jasbo needed some protection in the arena, and it was he that introduced the use of the reinforced bull barrel to rodeo. Nevertheless, he suffered several injuries from bulls that managed to get their head or a horn into his barrel.
Among his partners were Homer Holcomb, Hoyt Hefner, George Mills and Jimmy Nesbitt. Fulkerson and Mills formed perhaps the best-known team of comedy bullfighters in rodeo history. Ralph Fulkerson met an untimely death in a truck accident in 1949.
