Everett Bowman

Everett Bowman (July 12, 1899 – October 25, 1971) he also spent part of his youth in Texas. He joined the pro rodeo circuit in the 1920s: historian Michael Allen wrote that he started in 1924, while the Associated Press gave his debut year as 1925. According to the agency, he took up the sport after attending a Salt Lake City rodeo. In 1926, he won two disciplines and the all-around title at the Ellensburg Rodeo, The next year, Bowman won the steer wrestling title at the Ellensburg Rodeo for the second straight year, and finished tied with his brother, Ed, for the all-around title. Bowman teamed with Jack Traynor to win a team steer roping world championship and set a single-run speed record that same year. In 1929, Bowman was the all-around champion at the Calgary Stampede despite not participating in the bronc riding discipline. Bowman won a third Ellensburg Rodeo steer wrestling title in 1932, In 1933, he claimed the RAA season steer wrestling championship for the second time. He repeated his second-place finish in 1939. His career ended in 1943, with his final performance at New York City. During his career and after his death, media members compared Bowman to baseball's Babe Ruth. Fellow rodeo participant Phil Meadows credited him with doing "more to put the cowboy in good graces than any other man," calling him "a cowboy's cowboy." Bowman was the founder of the CTA; it was the first organization of cowboys, and according to Bowman was named because of the lack of speed with which it was created. Bowman served through 1945, when the CTA became the Rodeo Cowboys Association; the organization later changed its name to the PRCA, which it is now known as. He did announce his resignation in July 1939 when a group of cowboys refused to pay $500 fines for strikebreaking, but Bowman was reelected in February 1940 and nobody else was named to the position before then.

According to Bowman, even though the CTA's members were able to participate in strikes, the CTA was not a true union. The CTA fought for increased prize purses and control over who judged events. In 1937, the group participated in a national strike which affected events including the Ellensburg Rodeo and Pendleton Round-Up, forcing the use of cowboys who were not part of the CTA's membership. The dispute was resolved in Ellensburg in 1938, and in 1939 in Pendleton. The organization frequently battled with the RAA and rodeo committees, who the CTA saw as the RAA's membership.

Rodeo magazine editor Will Porter has referred to Bowman as "probably the most forceful man in rodeo history." The strong-minded personality he had has been the subject of criticism; author Joel H. Bernstein wrote of Bowman that he "was not the best of diplomats and there was no way to change his mind when he felt he was right."

Later life and legacy Bowman became a candidate for the sheriff's office in Maricopa County, Arizona as a Democrat in 1944, Piloting was one of Bowman's hobbies; he had a pilot's license and once flew with Yavapai County Sheriff Willis Butler in a search for a missing two-year-old child. Into his 60s, Bowman continued to make public appearances. He was the Grand Marshal of a parade held in connection to Prescott's Frontier Days rodeo in 1966, and in 1969 accepted a movie role as a pastor in The Great White Hope. In 1971, Bowman died at the age of 72 while flying a plane he owned, which crashed near the ranch he tended. the Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon Hall of Fame in 1985, and the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2004. Previously, he had been inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1955.