My rodeo career began in 1945 and ended in 1959. I participated in amateur, open, SRA, RCA, and NIRA rodeos. I started out riding bareback horses and bulls. Later on, I rode saddle broncs also, mostly in NIRA rodeos. I participated in rodeos at Brownsville in the south, to Gruver and Perryton in the north, and from Jasper in east Texas to Brownfield in west Texas and a whole lot of towns in between these points. Some of these towns were Angelton, Archer City, Austin, Bellville, Belton, Big Spring, Borger, Breckenridge, Brownfield, Brownsville, College Station, Commerce, Cuero, Dublin, Eagle Lake, Edna, El Campo, Graham, Greenville, Gruver, Henrietta, Houston, Hubbard, Huntsville (NIRA), Jasper, Katy, Kingsville, Liberty, Littlefield, Lufkin, Mineral Wells, Mt. Pleasant, Pampa, Pasadena, Perryton, Pleasant Mound, Post, Raymonville, Refugio, Roby, Rosenberg, Sam Norwood, Sealy, Seymour, Splendora, Spur, Snyder, Stamford, Three Rivers, Tomball, Tulia, Waller, and Wharton. I worked some of these rodeos two or three times.
I joined the RCA in Big Spring in 1949. I joined the U.S. Navy in January 1951 and was discharged in November 1954. I joined the NIRA in 1955 and was on the Texas A&M Rodeo Team at College Station in 1955, 1956, and 1958. I was Director for the Southern Region of the NIRA in 1956. I went to the NIRA National finals in 1955 and 1956.
