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WOMEN IN RODEO continued from page 41


including the President, Vice President, Secretary-Treasurer and Publicity Agent. Directors represented bareback riding, bull riding,  barrel/line reining and contract personnel. Getting her start competing in RCA rodeos against men, Faye Ann Leach won an All Around title in 1960 and seven titles total. She also served on the Board in the mid-1960’s, both as a calf roping and barrel racing director.


“In those days the barrel race was looked at more like a specialty


act. We had to dress differently, we weren’t allowed to wear Levis. We weren’t accepted as cowgirls, capable of doing things in the arena, just something pretty to look at,” Leach remembered in a WPRN story in 2012.


The Board evolved as events grew or waned in popularity; by 1965, there were almost as many seats at the Board table for barrel racing directors as for the other events. Four barrel racing directors joined Calf Roping, Optional Roping, Cutting, Bareback and Bull Riding Directors, along with the 


By 1969, the barrel racing directors began to be elected by regions, paving the path to the current set up with circuit directors. By 1976, just one position on the Board was left for the All Girl Rodeos, held then  later become the Association’s longest serving President. Florence Youree has come to be known as a pioneer in


barrel racing, along with her husband Dale, but she was one of the Association’s early top hands. Winning the All Around Championship in 1966, Youree also served as President and, later, Secretary-Treasurer. As the All Girl rodeos began to lose steam in the 1960’s, Youree stepped up to the plate, leading a revival of sorts. “They had kinda died out so Dale and I started producing a few, in Duncan and Wichita Falls,” Youree told the WPRN in 2012. “We went  barrel horses to use for the bareback riding. We probably weren’t the best producers but it seemed to get them started back.” “We were quite young,” Youree laughs of the large project. “The all-girl rodeos were a lot of fun, everybody got together for them. We made friends for life.”


That boost brought that side of the Association back to life, carrying well into the 1970’s. In fact, in 1977, the GRA sanctioned 40 All Girl  held in San Antonio. The 1970’s belonged to Sue Pirtle, the rough stock hand who would


 championships from 1974 to 1978 including two All Around titles. In 1974, Pirtle won the All Around, bareback riding, calf roping and ribbon roping titles.


42 WPRA NEWS OCTOBER 2018


JJ Hampton was a force to be reckoned from 1994 to 2000, winning a total of 11 world titles (all-around, calf roping, breakaway and team roping heading). WPRA File photo


Inspired by tennis’ “Battle of the Sexes,” Pirtle famously matched


 the Sexes” televised on CBS in 1977. The then-24 year old cowgirl pushed the PRCA’s All Around champ to the limit, forcing him to cover his last bull to win the match. In the early 1980’s, the GRA changed its name to the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association and added a new name to its All Women’s Rodeo division—the Professional Women’s Rodeo Association (PWRA).           Long Beach (CA) and even into Nevada, the PWRA found a more stable home at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma in 1985. The 1989 edition was televised on The Nashville Network, reaching 2 million viewers; Beutler & Gaylord provided stock and added money was $3,180 per event. The All Around Champion that year, Rhonda Harrison, was awarded a two-horse trailer.    historic Cowtown Coliseum in the old Stockyards. By then, the WPRA had devised the Divisional Tour for barrel racers and Wrangler put up  


The top hands on the riding event side were bull riders Tammy Kelly and DeeDee Crawford as well as Cowgirl Hall of Famer Jan Youren and her extended family of bucking horse riders.


On the other end of the arena, JJ Hampton began her reign as the


top All Around cowgirl. She won 6 All Arounds from 1994 to 2000, adding event titles in calf roping, breakaway and heading (the team roping was split into heading and heeling for the purpose of standings  event titles in total.   


road to Alvarado. It made a stop in Tulsa again for a few years, then to Lincoln, Nebraska, before landing at its current home in Waco, Texas. The last rough stock World titles were awarded in 2008, leaving the now-former PWRA to be called the WPRA Roping Division. The most decorated cowgirl in recent history is Jackie (Hobbs) Crawford, who won her 15th, 16th and 17th WPRA World titles in 2016. With breakaway roping expanding into professional rodeo, and more and more ladies picking up their ropes for both team roping and breakaway, the Roping Division seems primed for another renaissance as the Association turns the clock into an eighth decade.


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