Weekend Warriors: Local casino lets would-be cowboys grab the bull by the horns

Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2000 | 9:09 a.m.

The National Finals Rodeo, with its $4.5 million in prize money, isn't the only game in town for those who like nothing better than to watch a raging bull tear out of a chute and try to launch a rider over the bleachers.

On the grounds of the Roadhouse Casino in Henderson a handful of cowboys gather every Saturday to test their determination to stay on a bull against its determination to eject him.

While their brethren at the NFR compete for world titles and thousands of dollars at the Thomas & Mack Center, the bull riders at the Roadhouse's modest 60-by-100-foot outdoor arena do it for fun, experience and about $800 in prize money.

When the Professional Rodeo Association's monstrous operation packs up and lumbers out of town after Sunday, the bantam weight LazTech Ranch Bull Riding Open will still be here offering cowboys and would-be cowboys the opportunity to fulfill their dreams of a flawless eight-second ride on the back of a tornado.

On most Saturdays, about 24 riders pay a $50 entry fee to risk life and limb. Until last weekend the event began at 8 p.m., but cold weather forced a time change to 3 p.m. Anywhere from 200 to 500 fans turn out for the mini-rodeo, which lasts about two hours. The numbers may have been down slightly this week because the NFR is in town, and it's the one that gets all the publicity.

J.W. Kinder, a Casper, Wyo., resident, has been the announcer at almost all of the weekly Henderson events since they began last spring. He has worked rodeos throughout the West for the past three years. Before that he spent 10 years riding bulls. The gig at the Roadhouse, at Boulder Highway and Sunset Road, is the smallest of the jobs on his resume.

"These are called a 'jackpot' or an 'open' rodeo," Kinder said. "It's for weekend warriors, people who work Monday through Friday and get into their truck Friday night and go to one or two rodeos over the weekend."

Jackpot rodeos -- most of them for bull riders -- are popular in many areas of the country, but they're scarce in Southern Nevada.

"There are two bull-riding magazines devoted to the sport," Kinder said. "There are hundreds of events annually around the country."

He said bull riding is the most dangerous sport in the world, including auto racing. The danger makes it popular with fans.

"People want to see someone hurt, but not really," Kinder said.

While injuries such as broken bones and torn muscles are common (Kinder retired from the circuit after breaking a leg), serious injuries that are crippling or fatal are rare.

"I haven't seen a lot of serious injuries to bulls or riders," he said.

Injuries, serious or not, don't deter a lot of young riders, such as Shane Fields, 21, of Indian Springs, and his friend, Jeremy Thuerer, 20, of Pahrump.

Both men rode bulls in high school. Thuerer, who began riding at age 14. After graduation he quit riding for two years and went to work for a paving company and shoeing horses on the side. Then the Roadhouse event began and he's been competing every weekend since.

"Shane got me into it," Thuerer said. "I do it on weekends, trying to get it all back after laying off a couple of years. I look forward to being a pro some day."

Fields, who has torn calf muscle and had half an ear torn off, already considers himself a professional and is working toward qualifying for the NFR. He rodeos year round.

"I'm a concrete finisher by day," he said, "but almost every weekend I rodeo. Last weekend (Nov. 25) I was in Farmington, N.M. They have one of the biggest (rodeos). There were 250 bull riders there."

Fields' goal is to be a world champion. "I'll go to the NFR some day, you can count on it."

Riding lessons

Gary Laswell Jr., 30, a welder for Clark County, and Rob Hart, 33, a Henderson police officer, started the local competition after conducting a bull-riding school at Laswell's 2.5-acre spread near Blue Diamond last year. The property has a practice arena and pens for the 14 bulls they own. They hope to eventually have a herd of 20.

The two men spent a few years competing before injuries sidelined them -- a broken arm for Hart and a broken leg for Laswell. They loved the sport so much that when their riding careers ended they wanted to stay close to it and find ways to give others a chance to pursue their interests.

"When I was growing up here in Las Vegas there was no place to practice," said Laswell, who became interested in the sport as a child when his grandfather was a grounds keeper at Cashman Field, the site of many rodeos. "I didn't ride bulls until I was 24."

Hart also got a late start. The Arizona native began riding when he was 21. He competed in a number of National Police Rodeo Association events.

Some of Laswell's inspiration comes from a desire to keep alive the memory of his cousin, Sherman DeWayne "Butch" Laswell, a daredevil motorcycle rider killed at age 38 during a stunt that went awry at a Mesquite casino in 1996.

Butch Laswell, who had been a regular performer in a motorcycle act in "Splash II" at the Riviera, made more than 5,000 jumps in his career. During an attempt to top his record height jump of 41 feet a 20-mile-per-hour wind caused him to crash.

Laswell named his two acres LazTech Ranch, after his late cousin's LazTech Stunts, Inc. Next year he hopes to hold the first annual "Butch Laswell Memorial Bull Ride."

Each Saturday's event at the Roadhouse is part of a six-week "buckle series." At the end of the series the rider who has accumulated the most points wins a Butch Laswell Buckle, and then the series begins again.

"The buckle is a pride thing," Laswell said. "It is earned by the kids, not bought."

They earn them on bulls that, generally, are smaller than bulls in the big leagues, but not necessarily less fierce. While PRCA bulls average 2,000 pounds, those owned by LazTech Ranch average about 1,500.

Bullfighter clowns Brian O'Donnel and Doug Avila probably are unaware of the weight differences when they're in the arena dodging horns and hoofs.

"You've got to move laterally out there," Avila, who is recovering from an ankle injury, said. "They can't turn as fast as you, but they can run you down if you go in a straight line."

Competition is the game

Roadhouse owner Bob McMackin brought the bull riding contest to his 20,000-square-foot casino, where he also sometimes has Thai kick-boxing contests and concerts by rock and country bands.

"You've got to compete," he said, "and no other casino has bull riding."

In the name of competition, McMackin also has a 550-pound Elvis impersonator in his lounge, a French chef who may cook some of the best barbecue in the Las Vegas Valley, a gourmet Thai restaurant and a Thai-themed nightclub. (McMakin's wife is from Thailand.)

Ground will be broken for a 200-room hotel early next year, according to McMackin, who turned the Roadhouse into a casino five years ago. It had been a Stucky's restaurant.

McMackin sees the rodeo as part of the big picture for his facility, which will include the addition of a few more slot machines and some gaming tables (which it currently does not have).

"I'd like to build a nice arena and include more events, like barrel racing and team-calf roping," he said. "And I'd like to have a Mexican rodeo here on Sundays, with a Mariachi band playing."

Mr. Lucky's, a nightclub in Phoenix, hosts bull-riding competitions, as does Billy Bob's, a 127,000-square foot facility in Fort Worth, Texas, that has an arena surrounded by 40 bars.

But the Roadhouse is the rare place to offer poker chips with the cow chips.

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