OPSU News

From left, OPSU Rodeo Coach Craig Latham, President Dave Bryant, and Johnnie Davis display documentation of the early days of the University’s Rodeo Team. - Christina Cobos photo

**For Immediate Release** Beginning of a Rodeo Legacy By Laura Hays on 01/15/2010 Goodwell, Okla. — Former Associate Professor of Earth Science, past president of the Panhandle Association of Alumni and Friends, and enduring friend of Oklahoma Panhandle State University, Johnnie Davis, recently helped uncover a bit of OPSU history. His friend, Byron Parks, a PAMC alum currently living in Montrose, Colo., related the following story to Mr. Davis:

“During the school year 1947-48 at Panhandle Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma Panhandle State University), another freshman student and I liked to rodeo. Bob Cluck from Gruver, Texas, and I, Byron Parks, of Reydon, Okla., wanted to enter a rodeo competition held at West Texas State University in Canyon, Texas. This was possible only if we were official representatives of a college. A meeting with Dean Helen Muller resulted in her agreeing to write a letter authorizing us to represent PAMC.”

Mr. Parks provided Mr. Davis written documentation which Johnnie then had framed with photos of Muller, Parks, and Cluck from the 1948 PAMC yearbook. Johnnie said, “This appears to be the best documentation for the beginning of the present rodeo team at OPSU, formerly PAMC.” The framed piece now hangs in Sewell-Loofbourrow and provides an interesting glimpse into the very beginning of OPSU rodeo.

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