Back To The Future

A Look Back at What the PRCA Imagined for its Future.

- G.R. Schiavino

It was recently announced that PRCA commissioner Karl Stressman would be retiring from his post after his 10th and final Wrangler NFR in Las Vegas this December. The news inspires curiosity about what—and who—is to come, but also (particularly with statements from Stressman like, “I would stay at the PRCA as long as I enjoyed the job. Well, it’s time to say goodbye.”) how the PRCA became what it is.

The well-known story goes that the 1936 Cowboys Turtle Association resulted from a group of performance cowboys finally sticking their necks out for themselves, creating the entity that would become the Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1945, followed by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1975. And so, for 50 years, until the first and only impeachment of a PRCA president in 1986, the organization was, arguably, by the cowboy and for the cowboy. Then, a member voted president was ousted and the reign of the hired commissioner began.