Exhibit pays homage to history of rodeo

Friday, Nov. 30, 2001 | 3:55 a.m.

Baseball, born in the 1840s, is by far the oldest organized sport in the United States -- unless you want to include lacrosse, a form of which was played by American Indians long before the states were united.

The second-oldest sport is neither football nor basketball, both of which came along in the 1890s -- that honor goes to rodeo.

According to Danny Freeman, historian for the Prescott (Ariz.) Frontier Days Inc., the first organized rodeo in this country took place on July 4, 1888, in Prescott.

However, a Texas state-government website claims the first rodeo was held on July 4, 1883, in Pecos, the same year Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was created.

The Prescott event was called a "Cowboy Tournament," Freeman noted. Events included bronco riding, steer roping and cow-horse racing.

An exhibit about the history of the rodeo -- especially as it relates to Nevada -- is on display at the Nevada State Museum, 700 Twin Lakes Drive, in Lorenzi Park.

"Cowboy Up! One Hundred Years of Rodeo" opened Oct. 26 and will close March 10.

Barbara Slivac, curator of education for the museum, said it is coincidental that the exhibition will be in Las Vegas during the annual National Finals Rodeo, which begins Friday and continues through Dec. 16 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The exhibit includes trophy saddles, photographs, rodeo paraphernalia, buckles and literature. For children, there are two barrels outfitted with saddles so they can get a sense of what a cowboy (or cowgirl) feels like sitting astride a horse.

"We have a lot of really cool medals and buckles from a wide range of rodeo athletes, some of whom are still participating," Slivac said.

There is a small tribute to Bill Picket, a legendary black cowboy who invented the sport of steer wrestling when he was a cowboy on the 101 Ranch in Oklahoma at the end of the 1800s and in the early 1900s. He also performed for the 101 Ranch Wild West Show, which was patterned after Buffalo Bill's show.

Other exhibits at the museum include a tribute to women in rodeo. Perhaps one of the most well-known women rodeo riders locally is Pam (Martin) Minick.

Minick, 37, who was born and raised in Las Vegas, was Miss Rodeo America in 1973. In 1971 she won the Nevada High School Barrel Racing Championship and was named the Nevada Cowboys Association Rookie of the Year, the first time ever for a woman.

Minick now lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is an announcer for rodeo events broadcast by TNN (Cox cable channel 29).

Other items on exhibit at the museum include pictures and stories published in Harper's Weekly magazine in the mid-1800s. The publication is credited with creating the myth of the cowboy and inspiring the creation of rodeos.

"This is an exhibition about the rodeo (sport), which basically developed from two different strains -- the competition that took place on ranches and the wild west shows created by people such as Buffalo Bill," Slivac said.

Slivac said the exhibition is on loan from the Reno Rodeo, which displayed it earlier this year.

"The rodeo is very important in Nevada history," Slivac said. "It is one of the more important rodeos in the country."

The first organized rodeo in this state was in Reno in 1919. It has been an annual event there ever since and has grown to become one of the top rodeos in the nation.

According to the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, the Reno competition ranks fourth in national events, based on prize money. The top event is the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, which awards about $4.4 at its annual event; No. 2 is the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo ($500,000); and No. 3 is the Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days ($480,000). Cowboys compete for about $450,000 in prize money in Reno, according to the PRCA.

Slivac said many of the objects in the exhibit also come from the Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo., including items dealing with the issue of cruelty toward animals.

"The animals are extremely important," Slivac said. "In the Rodeo Hall of Fame there are bulls and there are horses.

"Something really important goes on between the athletes and the animals."

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