Saturday, August
10, 2002
Former
rodeo clown takes place in hall of fame
By China Long
Reporter-News Correspondent
How do you top having
your painted face painted on the water tank of your hometown?
Well, being inducted
into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame comes close.
Retired rodeo clown
Quail Dobbs of Coahoma is having the second honor bestowed upon
him today at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American
Cowboy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
“This is such
a prestigious honor,” Dobbs said. “Never in my wildest
dreams did I imagine I’d be joining this hall of fame.”
Dobbs, 60, spent
nearly 40 years on the rodeo circuit. In 1999, he traded his costume
and makeup for a gavel and office as Howard County justice of
the peace. He is running uncontested in November for his second
term as justice of the peace.
The transition wasn’t
a difficult one, Dobbs said, explaining, “Some judges are
already thought of as clowns.”
An Albany native,
Dobbs grew up in Abilene and Colorado City, so rodeos have always
been a part of his life.
He started in rodeo
riding bareback broncs and bulls about 1960.
“Judging from
my luck, it probably looked like I was trying to put on some kind
of clown act,” Dobbs once told the Abilene Reporter-News.
“So I won’t say I really set out to be a rodeo clown,
but I suppose it was in the back of my mind.”
Dobbs’ first
appearance as a rodeo clown was as a barrelman for a rodeo in
Buffalo, Minn. Rodeo clowns fall into two categories — the
barrelman, who is mostly for entertainment, and the bullfighter,
who distracts the bull to protect a thrown cowboy.
Dobbs is one of only
three men who worked the National Finals Rodeo as a bullfighter
and barrelman. He was bullfighter at the NFR in 1972 and barrel
clown in 1978, 1985 and 1988.
He was named Rodeo
Clown of the Year for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
in 1978 and 1988 and Coors Man in the Can in 1985, 1986, 1990
and 1993.
During his career,
Dobbs brought pigs, dogs, donkeys, roosters and an exploding car
into his acts.
Dobbs will be inducted
in the contract personnel division of the Hall of Fame. He is
one of seven inductees this year. Dobbs joins another Howard County
cowboy, the late world champion calf roper Toots Mansfield, who
was inducted into the Hall of Fame’s initial class in 1979.
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