Pioneer of Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame Entertainer

Bobby Clark passes away at 93

though they got their start as contestants. Both Clarks competed in tie-down roping while Gene also did steer wrestling and Bobby competed in bareback riding, but Bobby was best remembered as a clown and Gene as a bullfighter.

Major rodeos of the past, such as the first National

Finals Rodeo in Dallas and rodeos at Madison Square Garden in New York City and at the Boston Garden, were no laughing matter, unless you were Gene and Bobby Clark.

"I was only 18 and not very big, roping against 6-(foot)something guys, and we roped big ol' calves and I wasn't doing any good," Bobby Clark said in an April 5, 2019, article in the ProRodeo Sports News. "So, when I came home, I said I'll give it a year, and if I don't do good, I'll do something else."

Bobby Clark was born in Seminole, Okla., on March 24, 1930. The Dust Bowl drove their family out of Oklahoma and over to California's central valley. Gene served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and was a player on the Seattle Rainiers, a minor league baseball team. After the war, baseball reminded him too much of the military, so he opted for the freedom of rodeo and performed his first clown act in 1947. "The team had him on contract," Bobby Clark said. "He said, 'They told me when to get up and go to bed. So, I'm going to do something different.' So, he started fighting bulls."

One year later, Bobby joined him. "He said he got a job to fight bulls at the rodeo, and he asked if I wanted to work the barrel for $25 per perf. I said you bet I'll do that," Bobby Clark said. "I was making a dollar an hour picking apples, so that was a heck of a boost.

"I was scared to death of the crowd. I was bashful when I was young, and three years later I was at the coliseum in L.A. with 100,000 people." Gene, who died on June 4, 2005, at the age of 79, started as a bullfighter, complete with continued on page 86