New direction taken for fair rodeo

Signing the contract to produce the 2007 Allen County Fair Rodeo is Skeet Davis of Six Crowns Rodeo Company of Lincoln, Mo. Davis and his son, Scott (left), were in Iola in February to finalize the contract with the Allen County Fair Board. Board vice-president and rodeo committeeman Pat Menzie (right) represented the board.

By JOCELYN SHEETS
Register Sports Editor

Providing a quality professional rodeo was on the minds of the Allen County Fair Board members as they assessed the past and the future of the Allen County Fair. Economic factors played a role in decisions made.
Tradition is something to build on and change is always good.
So rodeo fans, there still will be a two-night professional rodeo at the Allen County Fair in August. But it will be sanctioned by the United Rodeo Association (URA) and the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association (MRCA) instead of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA).
Following a process of gathering information and looking into all the possible ways to go with the rodeo, the fair board decided to make the changes. In February, the board signed a contract with Six Crowns Rodeo Company of Lincoln, Mo., to produce the 2007 rodeo.
The 23rd annual Allen County Fair Rodeo is July 31-Aug. 1.
“We always have wonderful crowds supporting our rodeo and we’ve been concerned with declining number of contestants,” said Pat Menzie, fair board vice president and rodeo committeeman. “We put feelers out and had responses by a dozen or so rodeo contractors.”
Menzie said the committee did research about rodeo companies and other professional rodeo associations. They narrowed it down to about a half-dozen contractors and accepted Six Crowns’ bid for the two-night rodeo.
Skeet Davis spearheads the family-owned Six Crowns Rodeo Company. Davis competed in rodeo from age 14 until retiring in 1983. He has been a professional rodeo pickup man.
Six Crowns was formed in 1992 named for the Davis family members — Skeet, wife Judy, daughters Amy and Melanie and sons Scott and Clint. The rodeo company established a born-to-buck breeding program for its rough stock.
“We’re excited about coming to Iola for the Allen County Fair Rodeo,” Davis said. “Working with the United Rodeo Association and the MRCA, you will see an increase in contestants for the rodeo here. These rodeos draw more of the local contestants from Kansas, Missouri and other surrounding states.”
Three of the 2006 URA event champions live within a 60-mile radius of Iola. The URA was established in 1962 to sanction rodeos primarily in a seven-state area including Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin. The URA season goes year round.
Two-time all-around URA Finals Champion is Missy Bennett of Colony. Bennett became the first woman in the URA’s 43-year history to win the all-around title in 2005. She won the title again in 2006 and was the URA barrel racing champion and competes in breakaway roping.
The 2006 URA Forty and Over calf roping champion is Humboldt’s John Johnson. Johnson has been a member of the URA since 1987. The 2006 URA bull riding champion is Bret Griffin of Pleasanton. Plus the URA secretary is Muff McGee of Yates Center, which is where the association’s office is located.
The MRCA is headquartered in Adrian, Mo. Both new associations’ Web sites count memberships between 600 and 800. Both sanction competition in nine standard rodeo events — bareback bronc riding, calf roping, Forty and Over calf roping, girls breakaway roping, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, team roping and bull riding.
“We believe we’ll be able to get our contestant numbers back up to having two full nights of competition in all the events. We really expect 200 to 250 contestants for the rodeo,” Menzie said. “There will be some things we do that are the same but things will change with the operation of the rodeo.”
Menzie said there will not be a tie between the Allen County rodeo and the Linn County rodeo any more. The two area rodeos had formed the Eastern Kansas Rodeo Series for 22 years and both were PRCA and WPRA sanctioned rodeos with Rumford Rodeo Company of Abbyville as the contractor.
“It was just time for a change. There were economical issues involved and we wanted to continue with a professional rodeo. Over the years, the fair board has helped build a good arena and we want to continue providing a quality rodeo,” Menzie said.