Andy Taylor started riding calves at the age of six. When his dad would leave in the morning, Andy and his brother, Monty, would gather every cow, calf and bull into the coral on their ranch and ride them. They did not have a bucking chute until they were in high school. Andy’s first rodeo was at the age of eight in Blair, Okla., and from there he launched a career that would take him through ranks of junior, high school, college and into the pros. In junior rodeo he was the reserve national champion bull rider in Little Britches Rodeo in 1976. In 1968 he won the national championship.
In 1972 he was reserve national bull riding champion in the American Junior Rodeo Association (AJRA). Andy was the AJRA Finals champion twice and at the AJRA Finals rode a bull that had bucked off 33 consecutive PRCA bull riders. He was also awarded the Tony Haberer Award and the George Paul Award in 1972 and 1973. He is the only two-time winner of those awards. From the high school ranks Andy moved to college rodeo and continued his successful bull riding career. In 1972 he was runner-up in the Southwest Region of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. His team also placed third at the College Finals in Bozeman, Mont.
During his professional bull riding career, Andy was recognized as being able to ride the unrideable bulls. A talent he demonstrated when he successfully rode V-61. V-61 was only ridden five times in a reported 900 outs and in 1971 carried John Quintana to a 94 point marking in Gladewater, Texas. At that time it was the highest marked ride in the history of professional rodeo. During his career Andy twice marked scores above 90 and this was in an era when 90 points rides were extremely rare. He finished ranked in the 25 bull riders five times and narrowly missed qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo in 1972, ’79 and ’80 ’81. Each time his season was cut short due to injuries.
In 1979 Andy was runner-up at the prestigious George Paul Super Bull event in Del Rio, Texas, and in 1981 he was runner-up at the Black Velvet Tournament of Champions at Long Island, New York. Go-round wins at major rodeos included Houston, Fort Worth, Reno, Oklahoma City and Kansas City.
