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Above the chutes at Rodeo Austin 2

By Michael Barnes | Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 12:57 PM

For Part 1, see post below…

I heard about the event’s origins in the Depression-era Baby Beef Expo and its later incarnation at the Quanset-hut shaped City Colosseum. I squirreled away data (300,000 attended last week’s cook-off; $6 million raised to build the Luedecke arena, $1 lease for the “dirt” from the City of Austin, then Travis County).

Michele Golden, Gilbert Turrieta

I noted that Rodeo Austin — the country’s sixth largest indoor pro event — was among the first to Webcast live (board secretary-treasurer and Dell Inc. executive Travis Asklund watched the first week of activities from Singapore, China and elsewhere in Asia).

I didn’t know the background on the 1983 referendum that made the move to Decker Lane possible, or the tremendous amount of sweat equity and donated materials that went into constructing the arena and surrounding structures; how then-U.S. Rep. Jake Pickle spurred the Internal Revenue Service to grant the enterprise nonprofit status, how Willie Nelson agreed to perform as the first headlining entertainer for no fee.

Hap Feuerbacher, Bill Knolle, Fred Weber

As the evening progressed, I heard more about the DIY adventures of the rodeo backers, personally rotating the arena’s stage from below; racing out to grab four heaters so that thin, cold Tammy Wynette would not freeze in 22-degree weather; partying in Mickey Gilley’s “disco bus.” There was the time they hog-tied Verlin’s bigger, louder brother, Jimmy, and drug him into the arena.

Yet I was most impressed — not by the obvious bravery and athleticism of the rodeo riders — but by the dedication of the backers to cause. I kept hearing how all the past presidents from the early 1960s onward were still committed to the rodeo 1,000 percent.

Yet young leaders are needed. I’ll go out on a limb and say the time has also come for the first female president in this deeply traditional field.

Verlin summed up the feeling of the older guard: “I still bust my butt,” he said. “But I’m beginning to wane.”