More often than not, it’s Wanda Harper Bush’s barrel racing background that is referenced when noting her legendary status in rodeo, but she was an all-around extraordinaire thanks to her Texas ranch roping start and the all-hands-on-deck approach ranchers took throughout the World War years.
Like many of her predecessors, it wasn’t long before Bush (1931–2015) was going toe-to-toe with the neighborhood boys and, then, the men in the arena, including a 1956 six-head calf roping match in which Bush beat Pete Taylor by 21.1 seconds in San Angelo, long before Billie Jean King’s 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match in Houston received worldwide acclaim and spurred Title IX into action.
“It was not a story known far and wide because the humble cowgirl just went in there, took care of business and then moved on,” notes the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, which inducted Bush in 2017—the first time women (Charmayne James was also inducted in 2017) from a competitive rodeo category were extended the honor.
“It was not a story known far and wide because the humble cowgirl just went in there, took care of business and then moved on.”
Like her contemporaries, Bush was a founding member—No. 14—of the Girls Rodeo Association. She was instrumental in developing the organization into today’s WPRA and played a pivotal role in the battle for equal money in the ‘80s. Throughout her time competing, she established herself as the most decorated cowgirl in the history of women’s rodeo with 32 world titles across the all-around (9), barrel racing (2), cutting (2), flag racing (1), ribbon roping (7) and calf roping (11) categories.
Wanda Harper Bush became a Cowgirl Hall of Famer in 1978 and, in 1988, the WPRA recognized her as their Pioneer Woman of the Year. She was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2001 and into the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2005.
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.
