World Champion Bull Rider, 1972
Born in 1947 at Nampa, Idaho, John Quintana evolved into a top-notch bull rider in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1965 and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo for six consecutive years from 1969 through 1974.
The last rider to conquer the infamous bull, Tornado, Quintana captured the 1972 world bull-riding championship. He twice set world records for the highest-marked bull ride, scoring 94 points on Minick Rodeo Company’s V-61 at Gladewater, Texas, in 1971, and receiving 96 points on Beutler Brothers & Cervi’s Number 17 at the 1974 Helldorado Days Rodeo in Las Vegas.
After immigrating to Australia in 1987, Quintana thrived in the beef industry, establishing an export station at Waterloo and shipping cattle into Southeast Asia. In 2013 he was killed in a plane crash near Roma in western Queensland, Australia.
