EVENTS
Saddle Bronc Rider, Champion, 1923
Born in 1899 at Dysart, Iowa, Ray Bell grew up near Cheyenne, Wyoming, where he contested in local rodeos and county fairs. After serving in World War I, he entered his first professional competition at Salt Lake City in 1919, coming out on a bronc called I Be Damn. A self-styled “country cowboy out of Cheyenne,” Bell’s specialties were saddle-bronc riding and steer roping.
For nearly three decades Ray Bell traveled the rodeo circuit around the northwestern United States. In 1920 he won four steer-roping titles (Pendleton, Oregon, Boise and Weiser, Idaho, and Ritzville, Washington) and three saddle-bronc titles (Boise, Weiser, and Ritzville). He also rode in London, England, and in California and won titles in Texas and Oklahoma. In 1923, at the height of his career, he captured the saddle bronc-riding championship at Madison Square Garden.
Bell retired from the rodeo circuit in the 1940s to raise race horses and polo ponies in California. He died in 1996.
