Bodacious (bull)

Bodacious #J-31 (1988 – May 16, 2000) was an American bucking bull. He was known throughout the rodeo world as "the world's most dangerous bull". He was also known as "the greatest bull ever to buck". During his rodeo career, he was the 1994 and 1995 Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) Bucking Bull of the Year, as well as the 1995 Professional Bull Riders (PBR) World Champion Bull. He and Bruiser are the only bulls who have won bucking bull world championship titles in both organizations. Bodacious is most well known for his serious injury to bull riding icon Tuff Hedeman. Not long after, Bodacious also seriously injured Scott Breding. His owner, Sammy Andrews, then retired Bodacious. In 1999, Bodacious was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, and in 2017 into the Bull Riding Hall of Fame. In 2019, the PBR inducted Bodacious into the Brand of Honor, which is part of the PBR's Heroes and Legends Celebration, the PBR's unique way of honoring outstanding individuals and livestock in the sport of rodeo.

Early life

Bodacious, born in 1988 on the Merrick Ranch in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma, was a Charolais/Brahman crossbred known as a Charbray. Bodacious was born a unique yellow color, which was the only thing that distinguished him from the rest of the herd, most of whom were gray-blues and creams. Bill McCann, co-owner of Geary Livestock Auction, near Okeene, Oklahoma, regularly bought cattle from the Merrick Ranch and resold them at auction. In one of the loads he bought, he remembered a yellow calf.

In the winter of 1991, when a rancher named Jess Kephart came by McCann's auction yard in Canton, Oklahoma, looking for herd and bucking bulls, the yellow calf that McCann had culled appealed to him. Kephart purchased the calf from McCann and took the bull home to Longdale, Oklahoma. He branded the then-unnamed Bodacious with "J" for his first initial. When the young bull was three years old, Kephart decided Bodacious wasn't what he wanted in a herd bull. When Phil Sumner, a rodeo stock contractor, showed up to see another bull, Kephart offered to throw in "the yellow bull". Sumner paid Kephard about 50 cents a pound, "the going rate for beef on the hoof". It worked out to $700. Sumner took Kephart's "J" brand and extended it to J-31: the 3 stood for the month of March, and 1 stood for 1991, the year he bought the bull. He also weighed young Bodacious at . Sumner never named the bull either due to not feeling sure his bucking ability would give him a good chance at a rodeo career.

Early bucking career

Sumner brought the skinny three-year-old bull to buck in some local rodeos in northern Oklahoma, but was not impressed with the results. At first, the bull could jump high but "couldn't seem to figure out the point" of the cowboy on his back. The first three riders easily rode until the whistle on him. "I was thinking, Dude, you're going to have to step up your game plan or you're going to be going to McDonald's," Sumner said.

But at a rodeo outside Okeene, Oklahoma, a rookie got his hand caught in his bull rope at the top of the bull's back. When the rider started flailing around the side of the bull, trying to dislodge his hand, Bodacious panicked. The bull spun, jumped, and kicked, trying to get free of the rider. He kicked so high he almost flipped over. "By the time the boy pulled free, the bull had nearly gone over the fence". "After that, he had a goal: airmail those cowboys." According to Sumner, something happened to Bodacious after that, and he decided "he didn't want anybody on him or near him". He learned more effective ways to buck people off. Old videos of Bodacious taken from age 3 to age 5 show Bodacious practicing these methods. It didn't take long until bull riders at the local amateur rodeos refused to take on the yellow bull.

1991 amateur season

Sumner took the bull as an amateur to a few rodeo events sanctioned by the International Professional Rodeo Association (IPRA) and the PRCA in 1991. D&H Cattle Company is a well-known and respected stock contractor. However, both father Dillon Page, and son H.D. Page were both professional bull riders prior to being stock contractors and bull breeders. Later the Pages bred and hauled Bodacious' progeny. In 1991, H.D. attempted Bodacious three times. The first time Page attempted Bodacious was in Edmond, Oklahoma, in an IPRA sanctioned rodeo. According to Page, Bodacious "smashed my face pretty good on the way up". Then Page drew the bull a second time at his hometown in Ada, Oklahoma, in a $1,000-added PRCA event. His friends convinced Page to wear a helmet this time. Page maintains that the bull got him in the face again but on the way back down instead, in the helmet. The very next weekend at Athens, Texas, he drew the bull again. Page said, "You've got to be kidding me!" Despite being hit in the face again, this time Page managed to stay on for the requisite eight seconds, but one of the judges disqualified him for a slap. A slap or any other touching of the bull with the free hand is against the rules and disqualifies the rider, even if he stays on for the required time.

Terry Don West is best known for riding the infamous bull Bodacious. He also has five world champion bull rider titles between the PRCA, IPRA and BRO. West had attempted Bodacious four times and gotten a qualified ride twice. In 1991, at a PRCA event, two-time World Bull Riding Champion Terry Don West rode Bodacious for West's first of two qualified rides. His ride went down in history as the first qualified ride on the as yet unknown bull, and the prize money bore that out, as West won only $181. His ride was the first qualified ride, yet it was not the first qualified professional ride.

One day when Sumner was watching the bull roam around his pasture near Goltry, Oklahoma, he realized he might have a major league bull. He contacted his friend Sammy Andrews of the Andrews Rodeo Company in Addielou, Texas, a third-generation stock contractor. Sumner sold him to Andrews in 1992 for $7,500. Andrews gave Bodacious his name, and hauled the bull to buck at rodeos for his entire professional career.

Professional bucking career

Under Andrews' ownership, Bodacious bucked professionally on the PRCA and PBR circuits. Bodacious bucked for two years in the PBR, in 1994 and 1995. He bucked for four years in the PRCA, from 1992 to 1995. He also bucked for three years in the Bull Riders Only (BRO) circuit from 1993 to 1995.

1992 season

Bodacious bucked on the PRCA and BRO circuits this season. In 1992, soon after he bought the bull, Andrews took Bodacious to Houston, Texas, to one of the PRCA's biggest rodeos, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Hall of fame bull rider Cody Lambert was matched with Bodacious, who knocked him unconscious. Later in 1992, Bubba Dunn drew the bull at Lufkin, Texas. Since Dunn was unfamiliar with the bull, he asked Andrews about him; Andrews told him the bull had "a lot of down", which meant Dunn should watch out for the bull's head meeting up with his own. Dunn made the whistle at eight seconds and became the first rider to make a professional qualified ride on Bodacious. Two months after Dunn rode Bodacious, three-time Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) Champion bull rider Greg Schlosser drew Bodacious in San Antonio, Texas