Rick Chatman was born on May 1st 1956 in Ft Worth, Texas. Rick was a city boy when started the journey of becoming the 1984 PRCA WORLD CHAMPION BULLFIGHTER AND RODEO CLOWN. Rick grew up in one of the best towns in the country for a man to have a chance to be around as many Rodeo World Champion’s that live within a 50 mile radius of Ft Worth, Texas.
Rick found himself having trouble passing his history class in his freshmen year in high school and as always his mind was moving and thinking 1000 miles per hour. He came up with a plan to join the rodeo club that his history teacher was the sponsor. Oh by the way the teacher was a women and Ricks plan of joining The Rodeo Club and smoozing up to his teacher was launched. His plan started off with trying to ride bare back horses because the equipment cost less than the other events he wanted to try. Being from the city Rick had only tried to ride a saddle horse a couple of times. He soon started watching the rodeo clowns saving the cowboys from being gored are stepped on or hung up to a two thousand pound animal. Rick had also gone to school on a work program where he soon found himself working in the old stock yard area of Ft Worth. He worked on saddles at M L Leddy during the week and fighting bulls at the north side coliseum on the weekend.
After a couple years of working amateur rodeos he got a chance to join the pro cowboys in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He was then voted by the top 15 cowboys to go to the National Finals Rodeo. Within a couple years the Wrangler Bullfight competition came along and Rick won the 1984 Professional Rodeo Cowboys World Championship and the same year he was voted by the cowboys Clown of the Year and also worked the National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. For the next 25 years in a row Rick worked most of the biggest rodeos in pro rodeo such as Denver, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, Houston, Cheyenne, Snake River Stampede, Gladewater and many more. He has worked the Texas Circuit Finals and has been a favorite at Super Bull, The George Paul Memorial Bull Riding for years.
If you ask Rick Chatman what is one of his most memorable things in his rodeo career he says it is his participation in Exceptional Rodeos for physically challenged Kids. He was there in the beginning.
Rick’s two sons Chance and Cassidy have been the driving forces to make Rick stand out in a crowd and be proud of what he has done for his family and in his life. His family, his friends, his fans and cowboys across the country are proud of what this cowboy has done in both in and out of the arena.
