Sunday Afternoon Baseball & Bull Riding - by Robert Seay

First posted on 10-19-2007

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – It was a typical October Sunday afternoon in the mid-1950s with lots of company on hand. After Sunday dinner, the men and older boys were trying to tune in a new radio Dad had bought while on a trip to Memphis.

Although the Cardinals were in the playoffs, the three of us younger boys and Cousin Spike were too fidgety to sit still for long and were soon outside, soaking up shade beneath a big pecan tree.Don’t Try This At Home!

Eyeballing a half-Jersey steer over in the barnyard, Cousin Spike asked, “Have you boys ever been to a rodeo?” He knew durn well we hadn’t and proceeded to talk about all the fun and money cowboys made by doing nothing but riding bulls. He even hinted of having taken a turn at bull riding while in Jonesboro one weekend, which elevated him to the role of being experienced.

The next thing you know, we’re on the fence, giving that 300-pound steer the once-over. To put things in perspective, though small for his age, the steer was still bigger than us 5- to 8-year-old boys. Our concern was less about riding the steer and more about what Dad would do if he caught us.

A natural-born salesman, Spike soon had us talked over the fence as the steer, with eyes half-closed, continued to doze in a sand wallow. Spike straddled his back to show there wasn’t nothing to it, and the steer never offered to move. Even when Dan climbed aboard and whooped a couple of times, the steer just stood there! Nothing doing until Spike had Roy and me talked into taking our turns.

Caught up in the notion that bull riding - or steer riding in this case - was not half bad, we climbed aboard and began to whoop and yip like real cowboys. Unknown to us, Spike and Dan gave that steer a good tail twist, which must have caused his Jersey blood to heat up. Exploding out of the sand wallow, the steer made a flying trip across the barnyard with Roy falling in one direction and me in the other.

Aggravated and agitated, we loaded up with wet corncobs and began an all-out barnyard offensive on the tail-twisters. Over at the house, the new radio seemed to be working fine since the Cardinals were leading by three runs in the fifth. ‘Til next week!

You may never ride a bull or steer, but if you would like to learn more about what goes into producing beef cattle, contact your county agent with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service or visit http://www.uaex.edu and select Agriculture, then Beef. The Extension Service is part of the U of A Division of Agriculture.