The Pony
Express
Newsletter of the
Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame Association
110 W 6th
#374/Ellensburg WA 98926
EMAIL tlp@elltel.net/www.ellensburgrodeohalloffame.com
Number 11 (August 2006)
Howdy! Here’s
your semi-annual Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame (ERHOF) Pony Express newsletter,
just in time for rodeo!
Our New Website: Log onto www.ellensburgrodeohalloffame.com
and check out our first-ever ERHOF website, courtesy of Webmaster Justin
Berger. Although it is brand new, our site will eventually host an ERHOF store,
virtual museum tour, biographical essay on each and every ERHOF inductee, and much more.
Our ’06 Rodeo Museum
Exhibits: Thanks to the Rodeo Board, we will be
back at the “Western Village” north rodeo grounds entrance over Labor Day
Weekend, with displays, merchandise, and ERHOF info. The Ellensburg Rodeo and Chamber Driver
House Headquarters has a current display of our 06 Inductees, and there is a new Kittitas
County Museum ERHOF display. We are also helping the Kittitas County Heritage
Center with their “Railroading in Kittitas County” exhibit this year. See you
at the Western Village and “underneath the Grandstands” at the Heritage Center
on Labor Day Weekend of 2006!
“John
Ludtka has given so much to this community and the Ellensburg Rodeo,” stated
ERHOF President Teri Phillip. “John’s induction into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall
of Fame is a very good way to preserve the long history of his work and
dedication.”
John
Ludtka (1930- ), a native South
Dakotan, came to Ellensburg in 1963 as a Central Washington State College (now
CWU) Journalism Professor and, with his wife Janice, purchased the Record Printing Company in 1968. Ludtka
also served as editor and publisher of Jim and Joy McGiffin’s Ellensburg Daily Record until the paper
was sold in 1993. During their three decades in Ellensburg, the Ludtkas figured
importantly in Ellensburg’s economic, cultural, and institutional growth, with
active involvement in the Kittitas County Fair, 4-H, Rotary, Chamber of
Commerce, Western Art Association, Community Hospital Foundation, CWU, the
Clymer Museum of Art, and myriad volunteer endeavors.
Ludtka’s involvement
with the rodeo has been continuous. “John Ludtka is the historian of the Ellensburg Rodeo,” notes ERHOF founder and UW
Tacoma History Professor Mike Allen. “The
Tradition Lives On, John’s official 75-year anniversary history of the
Ellensburg Rodeo, has recorded for posterity the story of our rodeo and its
legacy to our community and the world of North American rodeo.” Ludtka was a
founding ERHOF Board member.
Saddle
bronc rider Marty Wood, a native of Bowness, Alberta, Canada, hit the rodeo
trail in 1953 and won many championship buckles before his retirement in 1974.
Wood qualified for the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) fourteen times and won three
World Saddle Bronc Championships (’58, ’64, ’66). He was Professional Rodeo
Cowboys Association (PRCA) Saddle Bronc runner-up four times and won the
Canadian Saddle Bronc championship three times. In Ellensburg, Wood won ‘the
Saddles’ three times (’57, ’58, and
’67).
Montanan
Rod Lyman (1961- ) joined the PRCA as
a steer wrestler in 1984 and never looked back. During a stellar career that
continues to this day, Lyman has qualified for the PRCA National Finals Rodeo
no less than sixteen times. He has won dozens of event and all-around buckles,
including the Southwestern PRCA Circuit Finals steer wrestling and All-Around
titles. In Ellensburg, Lyman won the bulldogging a near record four times (‘90,
‘94, ‘96, & 2000) and won the Ellensburg Rodeo All-Around Championship in
1990.
Both Wood and Lyman will attend and speak at
their August 31 Induction.
The
Beard Rodeo Company, headquartered at Frank and Charlot (VanBelle) Beard’s
Naneum Road Ranch, has helped bring notoriety and acclaim to Ellensburg’s
status in the world of North American Rodeo. Frank Beard grew up on the Yakama
Indian Reservation near Toppenish and began his rodeo career at age 16 as a
roughstock (bareback bronc and bull) rider. He founded the Beard Rodeo Company
in 1973 and with his family has built it into one of North America’s premier
rodeo stock contracting operations. Beard Rodeo Company broncs and bulls appear
at the greatest rodeos in the nation, including the PRCA Circuit Finals and
seventeen consecutive National Finals Rodeos in Las Vegas, Nevada. Famed Beard
broncs are Wild Strawberry, Profit Taker, Back Door, and Heckle, and his bulls
include the acclaimed Hemi Dip and Bacca. As a surprise addition, a Frank Beard
animal will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at the August 31 banquet.
The
“Blazers of the Trail” (re-named “Spirit of the Trail”) Pageant was a mounted
theatrical production staged in the rodeo grounds as a night show from
1926-1940. The pageant script was written by Central Professor H. C. Fish and
directed by Nellie Burke. Mirroring similar pageants across the American West,
“The Spirit of the Trail” portrayed the early history of the Kittitas Valley.
“The Spirit of the Trail” starred members of the Kittitas Band and Yakama
Indian tribes alongside local riders and amateur actors and volunteers. They
acted out early Indian scenes, U.S. Army exploration, “Manifest Destiny” and
the coming of the pioneers, the Yakama Indian War, and the ultimate civilizing
of Ellensburg and Kittitas County.
Tickets for this year's Thursday, August 31, 6 PM, Hall of Fame Banquet
are available through the Rodeo Ticket Office. Lifetime Members should call
Chuck Monroe at Kelley Realty to reserve their tickets. 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 2006 inductees to the
Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.