Mike was “Salt” along with Leon Coffee of the bullfighting team “Salt and Pepper”. He started fighting bulls in 1974 at jackpots at a rodeo arena just outside of Austin owned and run by stock contractors Cecil and Alford Hill. He also worked some high school rodeos. Shortly after he started, he asked his old high school buddy, Leon Coffee, to join him. Leon didn’t know anything about fighting bulls but he was a natural entertainer. They figured that Mike could teach Leon about fighting bulls and Leon could try to teach Mike how to be funny. Mike admits that he never got the funny part.
Together they worked high school and amateur rodeos for the Hills and Lester Meier from 1975 through 1978. At the end of 1978, they got their PRCA cards and went to work for Tommy and Bobby Steiner. In his first full year in the PRCA, Mike was selected to work the Texas Circuit Finals and was First Runner up for the National Finals Rodeo. The next year, 1980, Mike was chosen to fight bulls at the NFR in Oklahoma City with Rick Chapman and Ted Kimzey. In his career, Mike worked rodeos in Billings Montana, Ft. Madison Iowa, Jackson Mississippi, Kansas City and St. Louis Missouri, Montgomery Alabama, Calgary and Edmonton Alberta, to name a few.
Mike would like to give special thanks to Cecil and Alford Hill as well as Tommy and Bobby Steiner for giving him the opportunity to live a dream.
