Texas State Sport – Rodeo

The Rodeo was adopted as the Texas State sport on June 18, 1997. Modern rodeo events fall into two different general categories: rough stock events which include bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding and timed events which include steer wrestling, team roping, tie-down roping, barrel racing and steer roping. The rodeo originally grew out of a set of skills the cowboys on the frontier were required to develop for working and herding cattle. Many of the events at the rodeo grew from contests at community celebrations where cowboys could test their skills against cowboys from other ranches. According to the legislature, “from the earliest days of the sport, Texas has played a key role in the development of the modern rodeo; the world’s first recorded rodeo was held in Pecos in 1883, and Fort Worth staged the first indoor rodeo in 1917. The Rodeo Cowboys Association, the forerunner to today’s famed Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), was established in Houston in 1945.”