Charles Sampson, Butch Lehmkuhler, and the Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company will be inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame (ERHOF), President Teri Phillip announced at a recent news conference. The induction will be held at a September 3, 6pm, banquet at Central Washington University’s Student Union Recreation Center (SURC) Ballroom.

Sampson, a World Champion bullrider, will be inducted ERHOF’s “National Competitor” category. Lehmkuhler, a clown and acrobat, will be inducted in the “Participant” category; stock contractors Big Bend/Flying 5 will also be inducted as Participants.

Charles Sampson won Ellensburg bullriding championship buckles in 1981 and 1982 and appears on the cover of John Ludtka’s The Tradition Lives On: A Seventy-five Year History of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Born in 1957 in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles, Sampson followed an unlikely path to rodeo superstardom. When his mother moved her family out of Watts, young Sampson found work at a Gardenia, CA livery stable where local cowboys taught him to ride broncs and bulls. He soon became a cowboy and aimed for a career in rodeo.

Sampson rode his first bull at age 12, won his first championship buckle at 17, and joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) at age 20. During a sixteen-year career, he won bullriding championships at some of America’s most storied rodeos---Salinas, Calgary, Pendleton Del Rio, San Francisco Cow Palace, and of course Ellensburg. Sampson won four circuit finals championships and in 1983 edged out the legendary Donny Gay to become the World Champion.

One of the most accomplished and famous professional bullriders of the late twentieth century, Charles Sampson was also the first African American to win a PRCA world championship.

Twenty-five year Ellensburg Rodeo Board Member Joel Smith recalls “Charles Sampson became a huge fan favorite with the Ellensburg rodeo crowd, winning the bullriding outright in '82 and a tie in '81. In 1994, the rodeo Board honored Charles and his family as Parade Grand Marshal and dedicated the Sunday performance to him. He has been back to Ellensburg several times since retiring from competition as a motivational speaker. Charles is one of the great guys, and has given back much to the sport of rodeo and his fans.”

Rodeo clown Butch Lehmkuhler has been an Ellensburg Rodeo crowd favorite for nearly two decades. Born in 1954, Lehmkuhler attended Chadron State College in western Nebraska, earning degrees in Physical Education and Psychology in 1976. He joined the PRCA in 1977 and throughout his rodeo career has simultaneously worked as a high school drafting and woodworking teacher and coach. He resides in North Platte, Nebraska with wife Melanie and their children Bailey and Dean.

Rodeo aficionados call Lehmkuhler a “contract performer”---an entertainer who performs in-between rodeo events. Costumed in clown garb, he jokes with the crowd and cowboys, and performs acrobatics on a trampoline. During the bullriding finale, however, he performs one of his most important duties as a barrelman, assisting the bullfighting clowns in protecting thrown or dismounting bullriders. Lehmkuhler has won several of the annual “Coors Man in the Can” awards.

Retired Ellensburg Rodeo Arena Director and ERHOF Board Member Dr. Ken MacRae remembers, “Butch Lehmkuhler really set the bar for rodeo funny men during his career. His banter with announcer Phil Gardenhire (now deceased and also an ERHOF Inductee) throughout the 1990's rodeos proved to be some of the most funny, memorable moments in the history of the Ellensburg Rodeo. This man is gifted in spontaneous chatter, and filled those slow times during the rodeo performance. They were a very important part in our success for the many years they worked together here. They both were very special to me and it was Butch who called me to let me know of the tragic accident that took Phil Gardenhire's life. Both Charles and Butch were always willing to suggest ways of improving our show for both the fans in the seats and the rodeo athletes participating in our events. Their knowledge and support were greatly appreciated.”

Hall of Fame Board Member Nip Tucker echoed MacRae’s sentiments: “Our children came of rodeo going age during the Lehmkuhler years. Butch's unique form of entertainment, especially his trampoline act, was one of the highlights of the Ellensburg Rodeo for our kids. Butch Lehmkuhler exemplified the Ellensburg Rodeo theme of family fun.”

The Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company has roots that go deep in the history of Pacific Northwest rodeo. And throughout its colorful 70-year past, Big Bend broncs and bulls have bucked in the Ellensburg Rodeo Arena.

Bill Hutsell officially founded “Big Bend Rodeo Company” (named after Washington State’s Columbia Plateau region) in 1961, but the company descended from his father Lew Hutsell’s late 1920s eastern Washington stock contracting outfit. “Over the years,” writes one rodeo historian, “this company, and its tradition of outstanding bucking stock, became interconnected with a number of prominent rodeo contractors---each of whom owned his own company, either before or after the association with what later became Big Bend Rodeo Company.”

In 1928 or 1929, Lew Hutsell gathered together enough roughstock to produce Spokane’s July 4th Rodeo. Lew’s son Bill later partnered with Ed Ring, who purchased the Moomaw-Bernard Company in 1946 (Moomaw-Bernard were inducted into ERHOF in 1999). As noted, Bill and two partners founded Big Bend in 1961, but in 1971 sold out to eastern Washingtonian Joe Kelsey, another ERHOF Inductee. In 1992, the company’s evolution came “full circle” when Don Hutsell, Bill’s son and Lew’s grandson, partnered with Sonny Riley to buy out the Kelsey-McLean Rodeo Company. Riley and his father owned Flying 5 Rodeo Company, and thus the moniker of the new company became “Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company. “

The strong connection between the Ellensburg Rodeo and Big Bend/Flying 5 Rodeo Company is reflected in a statement by Dr. Ken MacRae:

"As arena director it had been a long-time dream of mine to get only the top end of several stock contractors herds to Ellensburg. That dream became reality when we were able to get the great horses and bulls from Big Bend and Flying Five to join Calgary and Beard Rodeo in the early 1990s. The quality of our rodeo was dramatically improved then and has remained top notch every since. The Hutsell/Riley horses and bulls, (many, such as Spring Fling, went from here to the National Finals Rodeo, and earned numerous awards as the top animals in the US and Canada) have helped enormously to keep us as one of the premier rodeos, and the top hands all want to come here to get on that stock."

Keeping with an ERHOF tradition, Hutsell and Riley have chosen an animal to be inducted with their firm. The mare “Spring Fling” is a famed Big Bend/Flying 5 bronc who has bucked off cowboys across the trans-Mississippi West for over a decade. She was voted PRCA top bareback bronc for 1997 and, uniquely, took the top saddle bronc honors two years later. In 2005 she was ranked among the top three bareback broncs in all of professional rodeo. Spring Fling appeared at the 2008 National Finals Rodeo and, after twenty years, is still bucking strong.

This year’s Inductees join a stellar group. Past Inductees to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame are Larry Mahan, Casey Tibbs, Bill Linderman, Bill McMacken, Dean Oliver, Tom Ferguson, Clint Corey, Jim Shoulders, Pete Knight, Charmayne James, Joe Beaver, Rod Lyman, Smokey Kayser, Deb Copenhaver, Gene Miles, Maude Barnett, Frank Wood, Larry Wyatt, Kenny Stanton, Joe Alexander, Jimmy Cooper, Marty Wood, Guy Allen, Ellensburg Rodeo Wranglerettes, Kittitas County Roping Club, Moomaw-Bernard Stock Contractors, “Badger Mountain,” Joe Kelsey Company, “Widow Maker” “Red One,” Beard Rodeo Company, Harry Charters, “Mickey,” Harry Knight, Red and Rose Wall, Everett Bowman, Montie Montana, Dick Griffith, Yakama Indian Nation, George Prescott, John P. Foster, John Ludtka, Ellensburg Rodeo Posse, King County Posse, Bob Swaim, Phil Gardenhire, Buff Brady, Jr., Loyd Ketchum, Berenice Blair Dossey Bolen, Christensen Brothers, Harry Vold, Wick Peth, Leonard Davis, Dr. H. F. Pfenning, Cliff Kaynor, Harry Anderson, Stuart Anderson, Bosque Boy, “0,” Scamper, War Paint, the “Spirit of the Trail Rodeo Pageant”, and the Anderson, Cooke, Driver, Ferguson, Fitterer, Gage, McEwen, McManamy, Minor, Morrison, Thomas, and Schnebly Families.

The Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association formed in 1997 to preserve the history and traditions of the Ellensburg Rodeo. Inductees are chosen only after careful consultation with old-timers and other local rodeo experts. Hall of Fame Board members are Mike Allen, Janie Charlton, Rochelle Cramer, Joe Crawford, Brigid Clift, Barbara Foster, Bob Kelley, Ken MacRae, Bertha Morrison, Teri Phillip, Joel Smith, Nip Tucker, Julie Virden, Jack Wallace, Jeff Whitney, and Stacy Young.

Hall of Fame artifacts are on display each year in the new Western Village Hall of Fame storefront (at the north entrance of the rodeo grounds) and the Ellensburg Rodeo and Chamber of Commerce Headquarters in the Driver Home on North Main Street. The Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame aims to build and maintain a year-round museum of rodeo history in Ellensburg.

Tickets for this year's Thursday, September 3, 6:00 PM, Hall of Fame Banquet are available through the Rodeo Ticket Office. Patrons may reserve entire tables in advance. Because past banquets have been sellouts, Hall of Fame board members encourage rodeo fans to buy their banquet tickets early. Check the DAILY RECORD for banquet information and forthcoming feature articles about each of the year 2009 inductees to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.