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Suggest pagesJim Shoulders
| Jim Shoulders | |
|---|---|
| Born | May 13, 1928 |
| Died | June 20, 2007 (aged 79) |
| Residence | Henryetta, Okmulgee County, Oklahoma |
| Occupation | Rodeo star; Rancher |
| Spouse | Sharon Shoulders (married 1947-his death) |
| Children |
Jamie Doak |
James A. Shoulders, known as Jim Shoulders (May 13, 1928 – June 20, 2007), is known as the "Babe Ruth of Rodeo".
Contents |
[edit] Rodeo career
Shoulders entered—and won—his first rodeo when he was just fourteen. Over his career, he won an unprecedented sixteen championships in the 1940s-50's, including an astonishing five all-around Pro Rodeo Cowboy Association championships, seven bull riding championships, and four bareback riding crowns. Shoulders was modest about his success, saying "bull riding is just putting one leg on each side of a bull and making an ugly face for eight seconds."
As a rider, in his first full professional year he made $7,000; the most money he earned in a year from rodeo was $50,000, a considerable amount of money at the time.
"If there ever was a man that had no pain quotient, it was him," said Clem Rogers McSpadden, a rodeo announcer and former Democratic U.S. representative from Oklahoma. "Heck, he didn't even wear a mouthpiece. I saw his knee swell up to the size of a cantaloupe, and he'd go spur his horse and win. That was probably the thing that other cowboys recognized. They'll be talking about him for generations to come," McSpadden added.
Over his career, Shoulders' injuries included two broken arms, broken collar bones three times, a broken pelvis twice, a broken hand, and innumerable concussions and broken ribs.
[edit] Business ventures
In 1949, at the age of twenty-one, he won the first of his world titles. He used his winnings to buy a 400-acre (1.6 km2) ranch near Henryetta in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma.
In 1958, Jim, along with Neal Gay, D.J.Gaudin, Harry Tompkins, Ira Akers, and Bob Grant started the Mesquite Championship Rodeo in Mesquite, near Dallas, Texas.
After his retirement from the rodeo circuit in 1970, he raised livestock, most notably the "unridable" bucking bull Tornado, which bested 200 consecutive riders over a 14-year span. Finally, in the 1967 National Finals, 46-year-old Oklahoman Warren G. "Freckles" Brown broke the bull's string.
Shoulders was a spokesman for Miller Lite beer. He also helped to design a best-selling pair of Wrangler jeans and had an endorsement deal with Justin Boots. He also ran a well-respected rough stock rodeo school on his Henryetta ranch.
[edit] Honors
Shoulders is lifetime member of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs and the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City. He is the only professional cowboy honored at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He was inducted in 2003 in the Texas Trail Hall of Fame in Fort Worth.
[edit] Personal life
Jim and his wife, Sharon, married in 1947. They had four children: Jamie Doak of Bixby, Oklahoma, Marvin P. Shoulders of Henryetta, Jana Shoulders of Tulsa, and Marcie Shoulders of Tonkawa, Oklahoma.
Shoulders died in 2007 from heart disease.
