North Dakota’s first annual prison rodeo began on this day in 1974. The two-day affair featured fifty-four inmates from the North Dakota State Penitentiary in Bismarck. The inmates competed in sixteen events, including bull riding, wild horse racing, steer wrestling, bareback and bronco riding, the ‘hard money chase’, and a mad bull scramble. In the ‘hard money chase’ event, a $50 bill was attached to a bull’s horns. The bull was set loose in the arena, and the first inmate to snatch the fifty bucks got to keep it. In the mad bull scramble, several bull-riders were set loose into the arena at once; the inmate who remained atop his bull the longest was declared the champion.

The rodeo was the brainchild of prison inmate Ervin Plentychief, who served as the chairman of the event. Plentychief had been an active rodeo participant since the 1930’s, so it was natural for him to suggest the idea to prison officials in 1963. Officials at the time were not so open with the idea, and threatened Plentychief “with a week in the ‘hole’ for suggesting such an outlandish idea.” As time passed, officials warmed to the idea. Several other states, including South Dakota, Wyoming, Texas, and Louisiana, had held prison rodeos for quite some time, so it was not an unusual event by the 1970’s. Finally, in 1973 Plentychild was granted permission to hold the rodeo in the penitentiary.

Two months before the rodeo was to be held, the North Dakota Prison Rodeo Association was incorporated to help pull the event together. The inmates made North Dakota Governor Arthur Link honorary chairman of the association, and Andrew Anderson honorary vice-chairman. Anderson, incarcerated since 1919, was the longest-serving inmate in the state’s history at the time. Although the inmates were practicing for the event since October, the famed steer-wrestling champion Jack Chase held a rodeo clinic for participants a month before the rodeo to ensure that the men were prepared for the event. North Dakota rodeo legends J. C. Stevenson and Emerson Chase were in charge of bringing in livestock for the event. Stevenson succeeded in securing the bull Yellow Jacket, touted as the “meanest critter in North Dakota.

A rowdy crowd of one thousand spectators attended the first day of the rodeo. Despite the fact that the second day was rained out, the rodeo was considered a great success by both participants and officials.

Written by Jayme Job

Sources:
The Bismarck Tribune, May 17, 1974: p. 13, May 20, 1974: p. 32, May 28, 1974: p. 10.

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