The
Chase Hawks Memorial Rough Stock Invitational Rodeo held in
Billings, Montana each December was started in 1995 by a group
of Montana people wanting to help ease a Montana family’s grief.
A group of about 45 concerned
people met one night in Billings, Montana. These folks wanted
to do something for the Hawks family that has just suffered
through an emotional tragedy of losing their 6-year-old son
Chase to injuries resulting from being hit by a car in September
1994. This group at first did not know what they wanted to do
but they wanted to do something. The Montana cowboy way is to
step up and help their neighbors when a family is in crisis.
From this humble beginning of
people wanting to help others, the idea of a one-of-a-kind
invitational rough-stock rodeo with top cowboys competing on
world-class bareback horses, saddle broncs, and bucking bulls
was born. “Today the Chase Hawks rodeo is considered the
premier rough stock rodeo event in the entire country,” says
Hall-of-Fame Rodeo Announcer Bob Tallman.
Volunteers from all walks of
life power efforts to raise money and to produce this rodeo.
Their main goal is to raise money for this worthwhile cause.
The Chase Hawks Memorial
Association is a Montana-based non-profit corporation raising
money for families in crisis throughout Montana, Wyoming, the
Dakotas, and beyond. The Association awards grants, organizes
volunteer efforts and labor, and co-sponsors fund raising year
around to benefit families facing crises that fall outside of
traditional sources of aid. An advisory board distributes funds
on a non-discriminatory basis, with priority given to requests
by individuals within the communities where funds are raised. In
2005, the Association distributed over $60,000 to nearly two
hundred families in need.
The Chase Hawks Memorial
Association, though born of tragedy, was founded in a spirit of
hope. This rodeo is “made in Montana by Montana people.” It
typifies the Montana spirit of hospitality. Their rodeo uplifts
the community, emphasizes helping each other, and promotes the
down-to-earth values of world-famous cowboys and hometown
heroes.
The Rodeo
Building – Metra Park
The
Chase Hawks Rodeo is a one-day rodeo held each year in December
about a week after the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas,
Nevada and before Christmas. The rodeo is held indoors in the
rodeo-friendly Billings, Montana Metra Park Arena that
comfortably seats over eight thousand spectators. Attendance at
this rough stock event has increased each year since its
inception.
Bucking chutes are placed at each end of the arena, eliminating
normal rodeo delays while rough stock is being loaded. This
double-bucking-chute format allows for fast-paced rodeo action
and affords all spectators in the arena excellent seats to watch
the action. A television crew for a national television company
also films the event for later showing.
Cowboy
Gathering, Dinner, Calcutta and Dance
The night before the rodeo, the
Chase Hawks Association holds a dinner, a silent auction, and a
Calcutta. A dance follows the Calcutta.
In 2005, the Calcutta, which
auctions off the cowboy teams to the highest bidders, generated
over $61,000. The Chase Hawks dinner dance is the largest social
event held in the Billings area during the entire year. Over
1000 guests, sponsors, invited cowboys, and stock contractors
have a chance to meet and mingle with each other in an informal
setting.
Rodeo fans get to “rub elbows” with their rodeo heroes
up close and in person.
Invited
Rodeo Stock Contractors and Rough Stock
Invited PRCA Stock Contractors
for 2005 were Sankey Rodeo Company, Powder River Rodeo Company,
Brookman Rodeo Company, Flying Five Rodeo Company, and Big Bend
Rodeo Company.
T
hese elite PRCA rodeo
producers provided world-class bareback horses, saddle broncs,
and bulls for the Chase Hawks Rodeo. Many of these rough-stock
animals had competed at the National Finals Rodeo one week
before in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Some of the rough stock names
rodeo fans will recognize were:
PRCA Bareback and Saddle Bronc
Horse of Year Spring Fling, from the Flying Five Rodeo Company.
From the Sankey Rodeo Company the saddle bronc named Skitso,
PRCA Saddle Bronc of the year. From the Brookman Rodeo Company,
a Bareback Horse named Sports News that had competed at the NFR
2005. From the Powder River Rodeo Company, a bareback horse
named Miss Congeniality, Bare Back Bronc of the Year winner.
From Big Bend Rodeo Company, a bull named Rapid Reloader that
had competed at the NFR. These stock contractors provided over
eighty invited quality bareback horses, saddle broncs, and bulls
for this rodeo.
Invited
Professional Rodeo Cowboys
The Chase Hawks committee
selects all of the rodeo athletes that compete. They invite
recent past and present PRCA world champions, former and present
NFR qualifiers, present year Canadian Finals Champs, the top
three Montana Rough Stock Circuit Champs, rookies of the year in
all three PRCA rough stock events, and Chase Hawks contestants
that have competed at the rodeo in the past three years.
Sixty
of these world-class invited cowboys, many who had just
participated in the NFR in Las Vegas, a week earlier competed.
Many of these cowboys were available at sponsor businesses in
the Billings area for autograph sessions during the day and many
of the cowboys visited the Billings Children Hospitals to
entertain the kids.
Rodeo Event
Personnel:
Ike Sankey, Sankey Rodeo
Company, is the arena director and kept the rodeo running at a
fast pace. Rodeo Announcers Randy Corley and Will Rasmussen
kept the crowd informed of all the rodeo action . Pickup men
Kenny Carpenter, Gary Rempel, Randy Hoffman, and Billy Ward
moved the rough stock out of the arena after each ride with
professional ease. Bull Fighters Lloyd Ketchum and Justin Hawks
(brother of deceased Chase Hawks) were the cowboy lifesavers.
Million-Dollar Barrel Man Flint Rasmussen kept the crowd
entertained.
There were four rodeo judges working this rodeo,
all past top PRCA rough-stock riders in their day, Scott
Breeding, Larry Peabody, Rick Smith, and Kelly Wardell. Justin
Sports Medicine was on hand, represented by Dr. Tandy Freeman,
to assist injured cowboys if needed.
Team Rodeo
Format:
All bareback, saddle bronc and
bull riders were placed on three-man teams. This added another
dimension not seen at regularly sanctioned PRCA rodeos. Cinch
Clothing donated all the team shirts and the jackets for this
event. The scoring system was based upon the aggregate score of
all three cowboys. Teams and team sponsors are drawn at random
before the rough stock draw.
Stock Draw:
Years ago, before random stock
draw by computers was used as it is today in professional rodeo,
there was another way. A poker chip with the bucking horse or
bull’s number was drawn out of a cowboy hat or coffee can.
That is the method stock is
drawn at the Chase Hawks.
The morning of the rodeo, all
the contestants met at Gusick’s Restaurant for breakfast and the
stock draw. This has become an annual event. Cowboys with their
families visited in a relaxed way that indicated that they were
all here for a good time, for a great cause, and to get on some
of the best horses and bulls in the rodeo business today.
Larry
Sandvick, Montana veteran bareback rider, had his young son,
Wyatt, make his draw with instructions to the boy “draw me a
good one, son.”
What the
cowboys had to say:
We had chance to visit with
many of the contestants and they had this to say about this
rodeo and why they were here. Montana’s own Dan Mortensen, world
champion saddle bronc rider who has ridden at all of these Chase
Hawks rough stock events except one said, “This a chance to
relax, get on great horses and visit with your friends and it is
for a great cause. After competing at the NFR for 10 days, it
is great to get away from the pressure. Same stock, same guys,
less pressure.” Flint Rasmussen, Barrel Man, who had just signed
a one million dollar contract with the PBR Bull Riders said,
“This is a special rodeo like no other. I knew Chase Hawks and
was working a rodeo in Montana with his older brother the day he
got killed. I have a special interest in this rodeo. It is for a
good cause.”
Todd Herzog, Canadian saddlebronc rookie of the
year was excited about his first year at Chase Hawks. He said,
“We come to support a great cause and to get on great bucking
horses. I would go anyplace to get on this caliber of bucking
horses.”
Jason Havens, bareback rider
from Montana, views this rodeo as a testing ground for young
rough stock riders. Havens said, “This is an opportunity to
compete against some of the top cowboys and stock in the entire
professional rodeo world. If you do well here, it is a
confidence builder going on down the road.” Havens drew from the
top of the herd and won the bareback riding on Spring Fling,
from the Flying 5 Rodeo Company. Denny Hay from Canada won the
saddle bronc riding, on a Flying 5 saddle bronc named Sundance.
Hay had this to say about the rodeo, “The Chase Hawks buckle is
one of the most coveted buckles you can win in professional
rodeo. When you come to this rodeo, you know that you have a
chance to win something. This is not a drawing contest like many
rodeos. If I had a horse like I drew today at every rodeo I
entered I would be in great shape.” Hay did not waste his horse
and won the saddle bronc riding. Brian Curtis, South Dakota
bull rider commented, “This is a big deal to get invited to the
Chase Hawks rodeo. I always wanted to come here and finally got
to compete.” Brian did very well on his first trip to the Chase
Hawks and won the bull riding.
Scott Chesarek, professional
bareback rider, and one of the key rodeo-committee members
explained why this rodeo is so successful. “The event itself has
many reasons for being the number one rough stock rodeo in the
country. The first and most important reason is all the cowboys
know that the event is 100 percent for charity and cowboys like
to give back. They will show up here even
if they cannot afford
to travel. Many of these cowboys have been at the NFR for ten
days and are sore but still show up ready to ride. They all want
to be here.”
“We also have exceptional
prizes, most are donated, and some are hand made by the cowboys
themselves. We have an exceptional payout for a one head rodeo.
The Champions in each event take home $4,785 for first place.
We give out a Chase Hawks Championship Buckle in each event and
a hand-made saddle for each event winner.”
“With today’s sport of rodeo,
you must be on the go to compete. At this rodeo contestants
show up on Friday and leave on Sunday. They do a lot of
relaxing, and visiting with their rodeo friends. Many bring
their families and children to the rodeo.”
Vision
We asked Brenda Hawks, Chase
Hawks’ mother, what she would like to see in the years to come
for this rough stock event. Brenda, said “Hopefully this event
will continue and will grow. The money that is made available
from this effort helps so many people that are unable to find
help in any other way. We hope to expand the scope of this
help. In this way we have made something very positive out of a
tragedy.”
After attending the Chase
Hawks, I would say if you feel like you are left out because you
didn’t attend the ten-day National Finals Rodeo in Vegas, going
to the Chase Hawks is like being at the NFR on the eleventh
day. Load up in December and head for Billings, Montana and
attend one of the greatest rough stock rodeos in the World!!
Contact
information:
Chase Hawks Memorial
Association, Inc.
PO Box 31333
Billings, MT 59107
406-248-9295
800-228-7690
Fax: 406-248-1019
www.chasehawks.com
Story by Mike Laughlin
Photos by Lee Raine
