PRCA Rodeo Sports News Rodeo Photographs

The ProRodeo Sports News is the official magazine of the ProRodeo Cowboys Association. It is marketed to rodeo fans and provides articles and photographs from America’s top rodeos.

In the 1920s, rodeo contestants began to organize in order to combat problems of the rapid expansion of the sport. The Rodeo Association of America, made up of rodeo committees and producers, was formed in 1929. World Champions were selected in the following events: bronc riding, bull riding, bareback riding, calf roping, steer roping, bulldogging, team roping and wild cow milking. The name was changed in 1946 to the International Rodeo Association.

By 1936, the cowboys decided to form their own organization after striking at the Boston Garden Rodeo. The organization was named the Cowboys Turtle Association because they were slow to organize, but eventually “stuck their neck out.” The organization wanted to ensure fair prize money, equality in judging and honest advertising of the sport. In 1945, the name was changed to the Rodeo Cowboys Association. By 1955, the International Rodeo Association recognized the Rodeo Cowboys Association as superior and closed down.

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association formed in 1974 when the Rodeo Cowboys Association added “professional” to the name. It is a membership-based organization that works to ensure the fairness and competence of each sanctioned event and the health of all livestock used. Membership includes cowboys, performers, stock contractors, contract personnel, and permit holders. (Permit holders are cowboys that apply for membership and have yet to meet the $1000 winners’ fee in a rodeo.) Currently, 600 multiple event rodeos are sanctioned annually by the PRCA in over thirty states and three Canadian provinces.