Mason Romans was born in Ganado, Texas on August 6, 1911. He broke horses for his uncle and was a natural at riding bucking horses. In 1928, at the age of seventeen he traveled with Pawnee Bill’s Wild West Show. He did this for a couple of years and then started rodeoing in the Southwest, entering the bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull dogging and bull riding events.
1933 was the first year of the Houston Fat Stock Show and Rodeo. Mason entered all four events. It was the first major rodeo he entered. In 1935, he won the bronc riding and bull dogging at Port Arthur.
Like most cowboys he had his share of injuries and wrecks. At the Clovis, New Mexico rodeo in 1936, a steer fell on him so bad they brought out the ambulance thinking Mason was dead. As it turned out, he was just knocked out, but the steer wasn’t so lucky. He had a horn broken off and his neck was broken.
In 1936, he entered at Boston Garden. In those times there was no added money at rodeos. The cowboys got together and went on strike, demanding that the promoters add money. They organized and called themselves the Cowboy Turtles Association. The strike was successful. From that time on, all rodeos that the Turtles members entered had added money. He was a charter member of the Turtles (#810).
Mason made all the major rodeos for a number of years: Houston and Fort Worth, Texas, Boston, Calgary, Cheyenne, Wyoming and Boston.
In 1949 he retired from rodeoing with the exception of judging which he continued doing into the 50’s. From the early 50’s until November1, 1969, he bought and sold cattle for packing houses. On November 1, 1969, while on his way home from a cattle auction in Angleton, Texas, he was killed in a car wreck. He died as he lived, doing what he loved.
