Unlike many of her roping contemporaries, Pam Minick was not raised as an all-around ranch hand. Instead, her equine ambitions were learned aboard a pair of $300 horses her parents bought her and her sister that were trained to pull a wagon down the Las Vegas strip. The horse hook was sunk, though, and it wasn’t long before Minick was competing in 4-H and high school rodeo.
She proved a quick study, once winning each of her eight 4-H classes (four show, four timed) and going on to become the first woman awarded the Nevada Cowboy Association’s Rookie of the Year title. Competitively, Minick thrived in the barrel racing arena, which made her a great candidate to become the Turquoise Circuit Director and the WPRA Vice President, but her roping chops require no fluffing, either. Minick was a 16-time Women’s National Finals Rodeo qualifier, and she won the Women’s World Championship Calf Roping title in 1982.
Perhaps the most pivotal event in Minick’s life, however, was becoming Miss Rodeo America in 1973. Already accustomed to the demands of rodeo travel and the public relations work she was doing for one of the hotels, Minick took to making public appearances and promoting rodeo like a pro, and that’s what she became. In 1976, Minick was asked to join rodeo superstars Donny Gay, Larry Mahan and Jim Shoulders to cover the live rodeo broadcasts on CBS—one of just three television networks at a time when it wasn’t unusual for 1.2 million people to tune in.
In a true league of her own, not only was Minick the first woman to ever commentate a rodeo on national television, but among her cowboy companions, she was often the best pick to cover the team ropings, which she did for many of the NFR broadcasts on ESPN in the 1980s.
Minick remains an icon and a mentor for women in rodeo today. In 1998, she was awarded the Tad Lucas Award from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum and, in 2000, Minick was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame. Pam and her husband Bob were inducted into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2004 and then the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2011. Most recently, Minick received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Rodeo World Championship in 2023.
Throughout September, Women in Rodeo month, we highlight the stories of women who have most impacted the sport of rodeo, as well as those who’ve lobbied alongside them for equality of opportunity. The vision of the American West has always been that of freedom, of grit and of limitless possibility, and the advocates and athletes we honor in September exemplify those values.
