James “Junior” Garrison was born February 5, 1938, northeast of Duncan, Oklahoma. Though rodeo was not part of his family’s life, as a young man Garrison traded a pig for a 3-year-old horse named Pluto and began roping goats. “That’s when roping became a passion,” he said. After graduating from Duncan High School, Garrison worked various jobs, spending his free time roping.
In 1963 Garrison became a full-time calf roper. The next year he qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in Los Angeles, California, his first of 11 total NFR qualifications. At the 1966 NFR in Oklahoma City, Garrison beat out seven-time tie-down champion Dean Oliver to win the average and the world championship. On August 5, 1967, at the Evergreen, Colorado, rodeo, Garrison roped a calf in 7.5 seconds, a record-breaking time that earned him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for more than a decade. In 1968, he won the NFR average in the calf roping, finishing with 128.6 seconds on nine head, and two years later, in 1970, he won his second calf-roping world championship.
In 2014 Garrison was voted a Ram Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo Living Legend. Today, he lives on a ranch northeast of Rush Springs, Oklahoma, with his wife, Ruth, a five-time Canadian barrel-racing champion.
