EVENTS
Calf Roper, Steer Roper and Team Roper
Rodeo Producer
Roy Lewis was born in 1914 at Tatum, New Mexico. Raised in a ranching family, he would continue in that tradition all of his life. He started roping competitively at age eighteen and became a charter member of the Cowboys Turtle Association (CTA) in 1936.
In 1937 Lewis claimed the first runner-up position among world champion calf ropers, being edged out by Everett Bowman. In 1939 he captured the calf-roping championship at both the Cheyenne Frontier Days and the Pendleton Round-Up, but Toots Mansfield ultimately took the crown. At the great Madison Square Garden rodeo in 1939, however, Lewis put in a record-breaking time of 15.5 seconds on one run, a benchmark that stood for several years.
In 1953 Lewis established a ranch in Hitchcock County, Nebraska, from which he helped organize and produce rodeos in southwest Nebraska, northwest Kansas and eastern Colorado. He competed in “Old Timer” ropings until age seventy and passed from the arena in 2003.
