Stuart, Mike

Mike Stuart of Wynnewood, Okla., was known as a happy-go-lucky ranch cowboy who learned the fundamentals of rodeo through his day-to-day work on the RO outfit along the San Pedro River in southwestern Arizona and northern Sonora. Stuart, born March 10, 1901, hit the rodeo circuit in 1918 as a two-event cowboy competing in saddle bronc riding and tie-down roping. In 1926, one of his best years, he rode a 1,400-pound bronc known as Grizzly Sal at the rodeo in Vernon, British Columbia. The horse fell with him and rolled into a fence, shearing off the saddle horn. That may have started the trend that is universal today. A bronc saddle has no horn, which could severely injure a cowboy if a horse rolled over on him. At Calgary that same year, Stuart rode Warman, a bronc voted best at the Stampede three years running. That same summer, Stuart won the bronc riding championship at Cheyenne. In 1927, Stuart won the tie-down roping title at Calgary. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979.