The Texas Black Invitational Rodeo features African American cowboys and cowgirls competing for cash prizes in events like bull riding, calf and steer roping, barrel racing, and more. For longtime rodeo announcer, Kevin Woodson, the rodeo is still a thrill.
"Rodeo is you and that animal," Woodson said. "I used to joke, that's right, they pay me for this!"
Woodson is a cowboy at heart. "I just love the rodeo. Period," Woodson said. "I was a rodeo bullfighter, so I love the bulls."
Rodeo bullfighters are the clowns that get between a rider and the bull.
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'I think he booty bumped me," Woodson said looking at a photo of him in action next to a large bull. "It ain't for everybody!"
As a rodeo announcer for the 35th Texas Black Invitational Rodeo, Woodson said his job would be to entertain and educate the crowd.
"To know that that is nothing new for us. We've always done this," Woodson said. "You see history unfold right in front of you, 'cause most people don't know that 1/3 to 1/4 of the entire West there were African American cowboys."
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So Woodson won't just be explaining the action, he'll explain the history too.
"For example, when we get to the steer wrestling we let 'em know that Bill Pickett, a Black cowboy, created that, and it became a rodeo event," Woodson said. "We try to be like an instantaneous Google!"
But at 35 years, the Texas Black Invitational Rodeo has been around longer than Google.
"Black rodeo is like the equivalent to the Negro Leagues," Woodson explained. "The Negro Leagues weren't formed because we don't want to play baseball with them; they didn't want to play baseball with us!"
Today's rodeos are more integrated, less Black and White; but Woodson says the Black rodeo tradition is important to learn about Black cowboy history.
"They might think, well that's an odd thing for a Black guy to do, and it really isn't," Woodson said. "Not at all."
NBC 5/Telemundo 39 are media sponsors of the 35th Texas Black Invitational Rodeo is on Saturday, July 27th at the Fair Park Coliseum in Dallas. The Grand Entry Parade starts at 6:30 p.m. Proceeds from the rodeo go to support the African American Museum of Dallas.
