Las Vegas Sun

Tue, Nov 25, 2008 (2 a.m.)

Sam Morris

Souvenir ads are for sale Saturday for an old movie starring rodeo performer Bill Pickett.

So who is this Bill Pickett guy for whom the rodeo is named?

He was born in 1870 in Travis County, Texas, the second of 13 children of Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former slave, and Mary “Janie” Gilbert.

While working on a ranch, Bill Pickett invented the rodeo technique of “bulldogging” — grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground. Pickett’s method was unorthodox to say the least: He would bite a steer on the lip to begin the takedown.

Pickett and his brothers formed their own rodeo company and Bill supplemented his income by performing riding and other rodeo stunts at country fairs and Wild West shows. He also appeared in movies before being kicked in the head by a horse in 1932. He died a few days later. Humorist Will Rogers announced the death of his friend on the radio.

Bill Pickett was the first black cowboy inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, in 1971. He was featured on a stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service in 1994, although the initial series mistakenly depicted one of Pickett’s brothers.

Then it was the Postal Service’s turn to bite its lip.