EVENTS
All-Around Champion Cowboy, 1957, 1966
Saddle Bronc Rider
Steer Wrestler
Born in 1929 at Beach, North Dakota, Jim Tescher grew up around horses and cattle on a stock farm near Sentinel Butte. He began contending as a bareback and saddle bronc rider in 1946, with an occasional run at steer wrestling as well. Joining the Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1948, Tescher soon focused on the saddle bronc event.
Unlike many rodeo contestants, Tescher never followed the sport full-time, devoting most of his attention to his ranch and family. But when cattle prices plummeted in 1952, he took to the road and managed to sustain the ranch with his rodeo winnings. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Tescher won at many of the major venues, from Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Pendleton, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; and Fort Worth, Texas, to Madison Square Garden in New York City. In 1959 and 1963 he won the saddle bronc riding event at the National Finals, and in 1964 was runner up for the saddle bronc championship of the world. In 1975, his last year as a competitor, he entered only eight rodeos, but placed at all of them.
In later years, Jim Tescher often served as a rodeo arena judge at Denver, Fort Worth, and the National Finals. He served two terms as vice president of the RCA and was a PRCA Gold Card holder. He was inducted into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1998. Tescher died from injuries sustained in a vehicle accident in 2003.
