ProRodeo Hall of Fame announces class of 2025
On April 15, the ProRodeo Hall of Fame named three Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) World Champions to its Class of 2025 inductees including Tie-Down Roper Stran Smith, Team Roping Header Steve Purcella and Bareback Rider Jeff Collins.
According to a ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy press release, the three are joined by multiple National Finals Rodeo (NFR) qualifiers and fellow contestants, including notable Saddle Bronc Rider Tom Miller, a three-time NFR average champion and six-time NFR qualifier who took a unique approach to success in pro rodeo.
“I think this whole rodeo deal is a mental game,” Miller states. “I had someone tell me, ‘You ride every horse for what he is. Don’t under ride him and don’t over ride him, and everything will come out okay.’ It was good advice. Just go have fun.”
Miller was a constant championship contender in the arena. In 1979, he lost a world championship by a mere $5.28 to Bobby Berger, which was the second closest world championship race in PRCA history, behind Scott Snedecor’s 2005 Steer Roping World Championship by $1.67 over Rock Patterson.
Miller went into the 1979 NFR trailing season leader Monte Henson and second-place finisher Berger, but Miller placed in seven of the 10 rounds and won the average by 19 points, making the world championship race one to remember.
Miller continued his successful career finishing second in the 1975 world standings and serving as PRCA judge for more than 20 years. He was part of the PRCA Rules Committee for four years, served two years on the PRCA Humane Committee and was an NFR judge for five years.
Additional champions
Joining Miller is Smith, a 10-time NFR qualifier and 2008 NFR average winner.
“I was just trying to win enough to keep justifying going to rodeos,” Smith states. “Then I was fortunate enough to make the finals and eventually win a world championship. This probably means more than anything because it really didn’t have a lot to do with me. This is something the people on the outside and inside selected.”
According to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Smith faced numerous obstacles along the way. He came back from a stroke in 2003, missed the gold buckle by $1,778 in 2004 and lost his prized horse Topper in an accident in 2007.
However, he seized the moment in round 10 of the 2008 NFR and finished second with a 7.2-second run on his mare Destiny, giving him his best run of the rodeo by six tenths of a second and allowing him to clinch the average and the world championship.
Another national champion being honored is Purcella who qualified for the NFR 12 times and won the NFR average in 1996.
“It’s quite a surprise. I heard a couple of years ago somebody had nominated me,” Purcella says. “But I didn’t ever think it would happen. I don’t know what to think about it yet. It’s pretty cool.”
In 1996, Purcella partnered with Steve Northcott and won the PRCA Team Roping Header World Championship and tied for the NFR Average Champion with Northcott.
Purcella had signature rodeo wins including 14 NFR qualifications, and he was a three-time Reno Rodeo champion, a Cheyenne Frontier Days champion and a Rodeo Houston champion.
Also being honored is Collins, a six-time NFR qualifier who won the 2000 NFR average title with a then-record of 816 points on 10 head.
“There are so many guys who are so deserving – amazing athletes and cowboys who have done so much for the sport that it’s just so humbling,” Collins states. “I’ve seen so many greats go in there, and just to be mentioned with those people is amazing.”
Collins accomplishments include winning the 1993 Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, the 1999 and 2000 Reno Rodeo Championship and the 1998 and 2000 California Rodeo Salinas Championship.
More honorees
Purcella and Collins are joined in the class by innovative Rodeo Producer Mack Altizer, owner of Bad Company Rodeo stock contracting firm.
“From the very start, we saw this was a hit, and it always pushed us to get bigger and better,” Altizer says.
Altizer was a pioneer in the rodeo world, revitalizing bull riding almost singlehandedly and introducing high-energy and modern marketing techniques into rodeo events beginning in the early 1980s. Today, no rodeo is without rock-and-roll music excitement, lighting and high-energy announcing during the bull riding.
According to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame press release, Altizer was all about the fan experience, and back then he saw traditional rodeos in need of more “show business.” He was known for pushing for higher payouts for performing cowboy contestants.
The 2025 class also includes the late Harley Tucker, a past Northwest rodeo producer and stock contractor from Joseph, Ore., who helped found Chief Joseph Days in 1946 in St. Joseph, Ore.
“At the time of his death in 1960 at the age of 52, he was one of the nation’s largest stock contractors, providing stock and producing over 25 rodeos in the Northwest each year,” reads the press release.
Tucker was also inducted into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in 1997, the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Fame in 1980.
Other inductees include Skipper Voss, the 1982 Wrangler world champion bullfighter, who also worked the NFR in 1974 and 1978. Voss’ techniques and style in the arena have carried over into the bullfighters of today.
The list continues
RTR Little Willy earned a spot in the 2025 ProRodeo Hall of Fame as a timed-event horse.
Considered one of the greatest steer wrestling horses, RTR Little Willy guided Rope Myers in 2001, Lee Graves in 2005, Jason Miller in 2007 and Luke Branquinho in 2008 to world championships and was the 2008 PRCA American Quarter Horse Association Horse of the Year.
Rounding out the 2025 inductees are the rodeo committee from Livermore, Calif.; Barrel Racer Joyce (Burk) Loomis Kernek, the 1970 Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) World Champion and WPRA notable Pam Minick, the 1982 WPRA Breakaway Roping World Champion and rodeo and Western-lifestyle television personality.
Additionally, the secretary of Livermore Rodeo, Colby Staysa will be inducted this summer.
Kernek made headlines throughout the 1970 season, beginning the season ranked number one and ending the season in the same spot, all aboard a horse named War Leo Dude.
Minick was a 16-time qualifier for the WPRA World Finals where she also competed in team roping and was the first woman to be granted a PRCA announcer card.
The 2025 Ken Stemler Pioneer Award, which recognizes those who have provided groundbreaking, innovative ideas and forward thinking to help the development, advancement and success of the PRCA and or the Hall of Fame and their missions is being awarded to Red Steagall.
The ProRodeo Hall of Fame Class of 2025 Induction Ceremony will be held on July 12 in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Melissa Anderson is the editor of the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
