Whit Keeney began rodeoing in 1932 and joined the Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1944. Keeney won the dogging (now known as steer wrestling) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Memphis, Tennessee. Everett Colborn hired him in 1947-1948 to travel with the Lighting C Stock Company, owned by Gene Autry and Everett Colborn, to produce rodeos in New York at Madison Square Garden for 32 performances. He worked their rodeos at Ardmore, Oklahoma; Fort Madison, Iowa; and Boston, Massachusetts. Keeney also worked for rodeo producer Homer Todd of Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Whit Keeney has won 37 trophy saddles, most of them for all-around cowboy honors. He won his first Saddle in 1957 when he was 40 years old. Eight of those saddles were won in the National Organizations of Rodeo Cowboys Association for competitors older than 45 years of age. As a younger man, he set the record in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the fastest time ever in bulldogging in 2.4 seconds.
Keeney owned and trained “Whit,” the 1987 PRCA horse of the year, as well as “Betty Crocker” and “Cooper,” two other well-known winning dogging horses. He received his PRCA gold card membership in 1967 and continued to rodeo through his 81st birthday.
