MINBURN, Alta. – One of rodeo’s toughest bulls will be permanently remembered with a $2 million bronze statue in downtown Calgary.
Outlaw was ridden only once in 71 trips out of the chute.
“It’s a rare achievement for a bull to have that much success, or lack of success for the cowboys,” said Doug Fraser of the Calgary Stampede, which commissioned the statue.
“There is no question he was a massive animal with a humongous amount of talent.”
Outlaw showed signs of greatness from the beginning, said Clark Jackson, who raised the red and white speckled bull on his ranch near Minburn, Alta.
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“I knew he was good from the time he was born,” Jackson said, surrounded by Outlaw memorabilia in his farmhouse. “He stood out, like most great athletes.”
Jackson said the bull would raise his head when he rode into the field and seemed alert.
“He had more of a personality. He watched things more than the other bulls would.”
Jackson raised bucking bulls on his ranch until BSE was found in Canada in 2003. His father started the Sandy Landing Amateur Rodeo in 1971, which started Jackson’s bucking bull and horse breeding program.
Outlaw was born in 1997 and during his early career was used in the Lakeland College Rodeo club at the campus in Vermilion, Alta. He was sold to the Calgary Stampede in 1999.
Outlaw was the champion bull at the 2002 Canadian Finals Rodeo and the 2003 Calgary Stampede.
Justin Volz of Charlie Lake, B.C., was the only rider to stay on Outlaw for the required eight seconds. Most cowboys lasted one or two seconds before being tossed.
Jackson said the bull had no set bucking pattern. Instead, he bucked high, kicked hard and belly rolled.
Once, while watching Outlaw buck, bull riding commentator Jerome Davis commented, “I didn’t know a bull could buck upside down.”
Volz’s ride on Outlaw gave the cowboy a record tying 93-point ride, and he was only the second rider to ever score that high.
Outlaw was also named Rank Bull of the Night at the Professional Bull Riding Finals and the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. As a publicity stunt, the bull once rang the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
Outlaw died in a fight with another bull in 2004 and is buried at the gates of the Calgary Stampede farm near Dorothy, Alta. His skull hangs on the wall at Jackson’s ranch.
The 4.3 metre bronze statue, by Regina artist Richard Loffler, is expected to be finished by May 2010. It’s one of 10 pieces planned by the Stampede’s public art committee to be displayed in Calgary.
