Beginning back in the 1930′s, The Texas Prison Rodeo was started up as a diversion and entertainment for employees and inmates of the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Dept. of Corrections. Every Sunday in October crowds would pack the prison arena to see the inmates ride bulls and wild horses, try to milk wild cows, rope goats, even attempt pig poking. Over the years the rodeo started drawing some of the largest crowds of any sport in the entire state of Texas. Crowds would often grow to as large as 100,000 spectators to check out the competition. The Prison Rodeo’s undeniable popularity even started to attract top music promoters, bringing in big Country & Western stars such as Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Ernest Tubb, and Willie Nelson to perform to captive audiences.

Some of the more dangerous competitions that the stripers competed in were driving chariots hitched up to wild Brahma bulls, and an event called “Hard Money” where the prisoners tried to snag bags of money tied to wild bulls horns while wearing red shirts.

Although the rodeo certainly brought in big crowds and brought in a lot of money for the prison coffers, there had to have been a certain sadness in the fact that many of these inmates had never even ridden an animal, or had even seen a rodeo for that matter. In October 1986, the final chutes were shut down on the last Huntsville Prison Rodeo, citing very costly renovations to the viewing stands that the prison system couldn’t afford to replace.

Filed under: History, Sports, Texas by Stephen : 2 Comments »