Texas is definitely a sports state. While we have many professional sports teams, championship college and university teams, and thousands upon thousands of K-12 and community athletes, and gridiron football has historically been the sport most closely associated with Texas, the official state sport is rodeo!
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission is charged by statute to “prepare and make available to the public a complete list of every state symbol and place designation” (section 441.006(a)(9) of the Texas Government Code). TSLAC’s state symbols website has long been popular, with frequent visits by educators, students, librarians, writers, researchers and members of the public. This freshly upgraded version now includes more information in a user-friendly format, alongside photos relating to each symbol: www.tsl.texas.gov/ref/abouttx/symbols.
Rodeo was chosen as the official state sport in 1997 via Texas House Concurrent Resolution No. 6, 75th Legislature, Regular Session. Per the Texas State Historical Association, rodeo developed alongside the western cattle industry starting as far back as sixteenth century conquistadors and the horses they brought with them from Spain. Modern cattle culture really began after the Civil War, the era of sprawling ranches and long-distance cattle drives. Cowboys developed skills and wanted to practice them and show them off—and so the rodeo was born! “Two of the earliest rodeos on record were held in Pecos, Texas.”
Rules were standardized by the Rodeo Association of America in 1929, and cowboys organized for increased earnings, fair judging, and to improve cowboys’ image. Women were also rodeo competitors from the turn of the 20th century. Rodeo became even more popular, and more professionalized, after World War II, when many Americans had more leisure time and discretionary income. Unsurprisingly, Texans stood out in the sport throughout its history, with legendary rodeo cowboys like Barbara Inez “Tad” Lucas, William “Bill” Pickett, Myrtis Dightman, Fred Whitfield, Toots Mansfield, Dick Griffith, Harry Tompkins, Don Gay, Ty Murray, Phil Lyne, and many more leaving their mark on rodeo history.
The State Archives have several collections with historic photographs of Texas rodeos, including the TSLAC Prints and Photographs collection, Texas Department of Public Safety photographs collection, Texas Tourist Development Agency photographs and audiovisual materials, and the L.L. Cook Company collection, featured here. See more photos from both, along with nearly 8 million other records, in the Texas Digital Archive at http://www.tsl.texas.gov/texasdigitalarchive.
