Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo’s “Texas Connection Series” Comes to Cowtown Coliseum

cowboy inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Today, the world-famous rodeo pioneer is namesake of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, the all-Black nationally touring ro-OOn February 19, when fans stream past a large bronze statue outside the Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth to see the rodeo inside, they won’t be walking past any ordinary sculpture or attending any By Andrew Giangola regular rodeo. deo planting new roots in Texas with perThe magnificent work captures the leg- formances starting in February. endary cowboy Bill Pickett performing a “Bill Pickett’s arrival at the Fort Worth Stockyards was a pivotal moment in his life story,” said Keith Ryan Cartwright, author of Black Cowboys of Rodeo: Unsung Heroes from Harlem to Hollywood and the American West. “Now, almost 120 years later, it is only fitting the most significant Black rodeo, which is named in his honor, would anchor its 2022 season back in the same historical stockyards.” In addition to the Feb. 19 afternoon and evening performances, The Toyota Texas Connection Series presented by Ariat and YETI will visit Cowtown Coliseum on May 13 and 14, a Juneteenth weekend kick-off celebration on June 18, and on Photo courtesy of Andrew Giangola August 20. Tickets for these special events rodeo discipline called “bull dogging” that are available for at PBR.com or Cowtownhe had invented. And the rodeo is named Coliseum.com. after him. By the time that Pickett had arrived at the Fort Worth Stockyards in 1905, the

Texas-born cowboy had laid claim to pioneering the new rodeo discipline, which is now referred to as steer wrestling. Pickett, born to a former slave in 1870, would compete in the iconic Cowtown

Coliseum, and then over the next quarter century become an international sensation performing alongside Tom Mix, Buffalo

Bill, Geronimo, and Will Rogers. The native Texan would be described Photo courtesy of BPIR as “the greatest sweat and dirt cowboy that The all-Black rodeo, run by Valeria However lived.” He would be the first Black ard-Cunningham, was born of necessity

Photo courtesy of BPIR

nearly four decades ago, when her husband, entertainment impresario Lu Vason went to Cheyenne Frontier Days and noticed an absence of Black athletes competing.

To give these athletes a platform, Vason created a rodeo just for them.

When Vason passed away in 2015, Howard-Cunningham took the reins. Under her stewardship, along with her Partner, Margo Wade LaDrew, the rodeo has thrived, visiting more than 30 cities across the U.S.

To see a Bill Pickett rodeo is to witness generations riding together, honoring and recognizing the old while nurturing the new stars of tomorrow.

“The Bill Pickett rodeo is family. It’s people connecting with one another,” said distinguished actor Obba Batatunde, one of the BPIR’s co-Grand Marshals who often rides a horse out onto the dirt to launch the event. “It’s an important education that Black cowboys exist just like everyone else in the American lexicon and were important in contributing to the development of this country.”

The Texas Connection Series events will be co-produced by PBR (Professional Bull Riders), a partner of BPIR, as part of a landmark joint venture with ASM Global and Fort Worth’s Stockyards Heritage Development Co. to operate the Cowtown Coliseum and to expand entertainment programming and marketing partnerships within the National Historic District.

“The Bill Pickett rodeo is more than a sporting event – it’s an inspiring history lesson on the significant yet often forgotten contributions of those who helped build the American West,” said Sean Gleason, CEO and Commissioner, PBR. “We’re proud to support its message, provide opportunities to its athletes, and build its legacy.”

The new PBR partnership doesn’t just add resources and reach to promote past history, according to Valeria HowardCunningham. “It’s also about making new history and taking ‘the movement’ that is the BPIR’s most noble consequence to a higher level. This history of Black cowboys deserves to be told. You don’t see it in history books or on TV. If we don’t tell it, who will? And now our next generation will be showcased like never before.”

Valeria has embarked on a passionate journey for 38 years, entertaining and educating communities about the contributions and impact of Black cowboys and cowgirls in the development of the West.

Photo courtesy of BPIR

And now these athletes are being given the opportunity to showcase their talents in special events at Cowtown Coliseum, a few steps away from the statue of the greatest Black cowboy of them all.

“We have an obligation to tell the story of Black Cowboys until that obligation is no longer needed,” Howard-Cunningham said. “I do see a melding of pots happening, especially here in Texas with its growth in diversity. Maybe one day, we won’t have to do a separate Black rodeo.” Andrew Giangola is author of the upcoming book Love & Try: Stories of Gratitude and Grit in Professional Bull Riding (Cedar Gate Publishing, 2022)