Naturally, the Winter Olympics of 2002 in Salt Lake City was full of icy and snowy competitions that attracted the best international competitors.
And the rodeo came to town.
As part of the Morris News Service team covering those Olympics, I noted both the contrast and the connections of the cultures of various people and generations.
One day, it was snowboarding, a sport characterized by loud music, strange terminology, glitter and competitors who have different colors in their hair and rings in non-traditional locations on the bodies. It was a new sport straight from modern culture. The next day, it was biathlon, a demanding combination of cross country skiing and shooting that few out of military skills derived from a harsh, mountainous terrain. Then, there was skiing and skating, skills growing out of winter-dominated alpine environment.
The rodeo was an Olympic Command Performance competition in nearby Farmington. It was one of 70 extracurricular events on the periphery of the Olympics that crossed various cultural lines. One of five performers per event chosen to represent the United States at the rodeo was Ricky Hyde of Mount Vernon, who won a bronze medallion in team roping. "There are a lot different people up here now that what you see in July," he said during an interview at the time. "You wear a cowboy hat around now and somebody will ask you what that's all about."
Utah. like several states in the Mountain West, was a perfect setting for the juxtaposition of Western and alpine cultures. It offers some of best and most popular ski resorts and areas. It's also a big rodeo state there's one almost every week during the summer in various communities along the interstates crisscrossing a growing Western state with some special cultural twists.
It struck me then that of the tapestry of sports in America, rodeo may have the most natural grassroots origin. As this large and diverse country was settled and somewhat tamed, all the skills exhibited at a rodeo had to be mastered and used almost every day. Plus, the American spirit of independence and a core value system of hard work, honesty and genuineness and handshake-good-as-a-signature philosophy has tap roots in what became known was Western culture (which actually began in some phases in west Plymouth). Our more urbanized society still bears elements of a rural culture born out of cowboys and farmers trying to tame and adapt to both land and beast.
And our sports environment that creates icons and heroes (and villains) from ordinary people doing extraordinary things plus the mindset of good guys and bad guys and black vs. white partly originates out of the dust from the western movement in American history.
Most sports were established from basic human skills and the challenge to discover who is best. There's an innate urge to run, jump, throw, have physical contact and figure out how to translate those skills into games. There's a need for speed to find out who has the fastest legs, the fastest horse, the fastest cars.
Baseball originated from folks devising a multi-faceted game that come be adapted to pasture, park, a vacant lot or a city street. Golf came from folks figuring out how to do something challenging with a ball in the rolling hills, windy coasts and the thickets and uneven rough grass and vegetation in Scotland. Basketball was devised as an indoor, cold-weather sport that was similar to hockey but wasn't hockey. Football was as descendant of rugby that reflected man's desire to roughhouse. The roots of NASCAR came from bootleggers trying to customize ordinary vehicles to be able to outrun what the cops had. Fishing and hunting few out of people adapting to their environments and the need to find food.
Rodeo was born out what folks had to do every day to survive and to celebrate those did it well. In settling this land and developing a livelihood, people young and old had to herd and pen all kinds of animals, rope and wrestle steers and goats, become one with a horse and put it through precise regimens and figure out how to deal with wild horses and mean bulls.
Rodeo combines a lot of major elements of many sports, the need for precision and the competency in mastering all kinds of terrain and conditions with distinct strains of danger and fear. The added challenge and major variable is it requires handling animals of all types calm ones, steady ones, mean, snarly ones and just plain stubborn ones. You have to chase 'em, rope 'em, wrestle 'em, pen 'em, tie 'em and ride 'em.
This weekend, rodeo the Professional Cowboys Rodeo Association event followed by a teen-aged rodeo will grab a share of the Memorial Day Weekend spotlight in Conway. It's interesting that rodeo is one professional event (fishing is another) in which the size of the community doesn't depend on success. A good fishing tournament can be held wherever there's a nice-sized body of water. A good rodeo can be held in a large city, a mid-size community or in a small hamlet with bleachers, a fenced area and plenty of room for trailer parking, makeshift bleachers and lawn chairs.
Last week, on the way to a journalism-related event, I drove through the beautiful, rolling countryside from Guy to Heber Springs. I saw bales of hay, barns, fenced pastures and cattle, horses and a few goats. It struck me how much the livelihood of so many just a few miles away still depends on adapting to the land, handling the animals and rolling with all kinds of natural punches those basic and time-honored cowboy skills.
And I reflected on the difference in perspective from rodeo and almost every other professional sport. Most transform play into work and once transformed, play is never the same.
Rodeo converts work into play. Then, the competitors return to their farms and ranches and work.
And except for the audience and the setting, it's hard to tell the difference.
(Sports columnist David McCollum can be reached at 505-1235 or david.mccollum@thecabin.net)
