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Big Bucks for Big Bucks
| Article
# : |
11311 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1986 |
3,185 Words |
| Author
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Ray Buck
Ray Buck, sports writer for the Houston Post, has covered the
rodeo for the past five years. His works include He Ain't No
Bum, the story of coach Bum Phillips, formerly with the
Houston Oilers and New Orleans Saints, published by Jordan
Publishers. Also, he's the author of seven children's books on
sports heros, published by Children's Press in Chicago. |
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is more than a dust-covered, history-book reminder for those living in the nation's fourth largest city.
Yaw-hoo!
High-tech Houston has grown up without losing its passion for pointed-toe boots and Western-style hats, at least during February and early March when the world's largest indoor rodeo comes to the Astrodome.
Hundreds of trail riders traveled along lonely farm roads and crowded freeways leading into Houston, Texas, arriving from places as far away as West Texas and Louisiana.
Consider 547,736 customers attending the 1986 Houston Rodeo, or an average crowd of more than 34,233 for each of the sixteen performances held over a twelve-day period. Picture, if you can, a 1,245-pound beauty contest winner, a Charolais steer named Poncho who stole the livestock show when crowned grand champion.
You get the idea? Houston takes its rodeo seriously, and so do the cowboys who enter it. Nearly 700 members of the professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and another 117 female barrel racers from the Women's Professional Rodeo Association joined hands with Houston this year in a sesquicentennial salute to Texas.
At stake was $339,170 in total prize money, although the contestants themselves provide about half of that in entry fees, as well as foot their own bills for travel and hotels. It's a professional sport in its most
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