Casey Tibbs and Thell Reed Born to Buck

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DoubleAdobe

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I found this documentary/movie after hearing about it for many years. It was evidently written by Casey Tibbs, the six time saddle bronc champion and judged by many to be the best bronc rider ever.
I knew some of his relatives that are in this movie and like I said heard of the filming of it when I worked in South Dakota one summer in 1973.
The bonus is it has a very young Thell Reed, of fast draw fame, playing a part in it, yeah, it's a little cheesy but cool nonetheless.
It also has Rex Allen narrating a good portion of it. He is a fellow Cochise County Arizonan and while playing a movie cowboy, he really was raised on a real, honest to goodness cow ranch north of Willcox, Az.
Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jltOn-3giLs[/ame]
 
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Those of us that follows Saddle Bronc Riding, knows Casey Tibbs was one of the Greats in the sport.


I'm watchin the movie....Man, do I remember snubbin posts, war bridles and scotch hobbles.

Ear'n one down to gain the saddle, I wouldn't take a million dollars for those experiences....

What with that said, I wouldn't give a nickel for some more of it now'n days.

Snappin out rank stock is for the young'ns.




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That brings back a lot of memories. I hung out with Casey and Jim Shoulders during my bronc ridin' phase. Those were two characters for sure.

Casey had a purple Lincoln Continnental. Most times he wore a pair of purple chaps. He won the Championship at Cheyenne Frontier Days one year. He rode his final Bronc on Sunday. All he had to do was make the 8 seconds and it was for sure he would win.

Well I happened to have the keys to his car. When he stepped off that bronc, I drove into the area and picked him up. We took a victory lap around the race track much to the displeasure of the local Gendarmes.

We could of been in deep doo-doo, but the Frontier Days Committee didn't think it would look too good if they had their Champeen Saddle Bronc
rider arrested, so we got by with it.
You can't tell much from the picture I use for an Icon up in the corner, but that old Stetson I still wear today has the same "Denton Pinch" that became a Casey Tibbs trade mark.
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Them was some good times.
There was the time Jim and I got throwed out of the Brown Palace restaurant during the Stock Show in Denver, but that's another story.
 
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Casey for sure had style.
I watched that movie he did. Saw some folks I knew way back when.
Even knew a couple of the Indians in that footage from Frontier Days.

I can sure relate to them ol boys gettin' piled up in the "mudeo."

I got thrown off in front of the chutes at Cheyenne in worse mud than they had, and completely submerged in the slop.

Yeah, that brought back a lot of old memories.
Like Dave said, I thought I was havin' good times back then,
but I wouldn't give a nickel for some more of them.:cool:
 
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Iggy, I got to know old ShortLog Tibbs, Casey's uncle the summer I was in Ridgeview and Eagle Butte. Man, what a fine feller. They were still tie down team roping there, which was a novelty to me, because down in this country we had been dally roping for a while. Team facing, don't you know, ha.
Anyway, they told a good one on old ShortLog.He was pedalling his old pickup and trailer out east of Eagle Butte, poking along, no brake lights or turn signals of course, and as it happened he had a good line of turistas behind him waiting to pass. When he got to his turnoff at the old church west of Ridgeview he just stomped on the brake and turned to the left. Of course, it caused a little old accordion pile up behind him, nothing serious but a few bent fenders and busted lights. They sent out a deputy from Eagle Butte and when asked what happened, old ShortLog said, "Well, hell, everbody knows I turn here." He was quite puzzled by the whole deal, ha.
 
Movies

Casey Tibbs was in several movies. He was in Breakheart Pass with Charles Bronson and I have seen his name in several old movies. Another from his era was Freckles Brown. Won the Bull Riding Championship at 49. Those old Cowboys were something!
 
Chris Ladioux had a great line in one of his songs "Back when we was kids".
We looked like a bunch of honyocks but we could ride like Casey Tibbs.

Benny Renyolds lived about 30 miles from me and was one of a kind.
 
One bronc rider in the Ft. Pierre fairgrounds part of the movie is Johnny Holloway.He characteristically rode the heck out that bronc. He is a nephew of Casey's and a heck of a horseman himself. His family has been in the stock contracting business in that country a long time. Still resides in Eagle Butte as far as I know, and a heck of a guy.
As a matter of fact, Johnny's son, T. C. was an up and coming talented bronc rider himself until he was killed in a car wreck about 2001.
An interesting tidbit is that T.C. and his Dad both won the Rookie saddle bronc event at Cheyenne Frontier Days a generation apart.
How cool is that?
 
Thread reminds me of the 60s TV show Stoney Burke with Jack Lord and Warren Oates. Heard Casey's name mentioned more than once on the show.
 
The gentleman in Purple was my favorite all time Cowboy......
Hoped to se him every year at the Red Bluff Rodeo, when I was a youngster.

I have one picture that I think is around 1957 with him getting onto the back of the top house of the year, named "War Paint".

Of course back then, hot dogs and cotton candy were important too !!

"Coming out of shute number four......."

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As a matter of fact, the feller I worked for on the Rez that summer was a good friend of all the Tibbs.
His wife, a very good woman, told me that old Casey had come calling on her in Eagle Butte when she was but a maiden, many years before I was there, in his purple Caddy, honking his horn as he drove up to the curb. Suffice it to say that her Papa was not impressed and had a talk with the brash young man, ha.
I, as well as my boss's wife never figgered it did much good, but there you go. She never told me those stories in earshot of her husband for some reason, could have been a sore point, who knows. Haha
 
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For many years, the Ox Bow Ranch in the Black Hills, SD hosted the Match of Champions that was co-sponored by Casey. The annual rodeo drew thousands to the tiny mountain valley near Nemo, SD. If you happen out that way, stop in at the Nemo Guest Ranch and check out the photos on the walls. Unfortunately, the old rodeo grounds and grandstand were torn down by the current landowners. That's progress:(
 
Ranger514 said:
For many years, the Ox Bow Ranch in the Black Hills, SD hosted the Match of Champions that was co-sponored by Casey. The annual rodeo drew thousands to the tiny mountain valley near Nemo, SD. If you happen out that way, stop in at the Nemo Guest Ranch and check out the photos on the walls. Unfortunately, the old rodeo grounds and grandstand were torn down by the current landowners. That's progress:(
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I didn't know that. I had assumed that the Match of Champions was in Ft. Pierre. Interesting, but a shame that the facilities are gone.
 
DoubleAdobe said:
I didn't know that. I had assumed that the Match of Champions was in Ft. Pierre. Interesting, but a shame that the facilities are gone.
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You're right about the Match of Champions now being held in Ft. Pierre. My comment came from a pic of Casey on a bronc I found online when I searched his name and Nemo, SD. The pic of Casey on a bronc had a caption stating what I reported.

I have a special fondness for the Nemo area. When I was little, our folks used to take us on picnics up at Nemo. That would have been in the early '60s. I remember dad pointing out the rodeo grounds, and the pics on the walls of the Nemo Guest Ranch showing the grounds and stadium go back to sometime in the '30s. It was quite a rodeo grounds in its day. I'm not sure when Casey got involved, but that Ox Bow rodeo grounds would have been operating long before he started competing.
 
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