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Show Me flftade a Hit Witlt Moeabitfes ; The 1968 Canyonlands Rodeo Ro-deo Festival attracted almost capacity crowds this past weekend. The good weather had a lot to do with the large turnout, and 1 some of the credit is due to the procedute of preceding parade events. The parades this year began in the north pnj;l of Moab and progressed to the south just two hours prior to the rodeos of both Friday and Saturday nights. The enthusiasm generated gen-erated by a rodeo parade probably pro-bably motivated a good number num-ber of stay-at homers to attend at-tend the rodeo. First place winners in each event are as follows: Saddle bronc champ was Jim Steen of Glenns Ferry, Idaho, Sleen .also won the bareback and the bull riding events raking up a total of almost $600. A Wellington, Utah man, Marvin Adams, was calf-roping charnp with Green River's A. C. Ek-ker Ek-ker coming in for a close second. sec-ond. Steer wrestling champ was Jay Hadley of Ogden, Utah. The amature bareback riding rid-ing was entered by six local men, Kent Turner, Roger Mc-Neeley, Mc-Neeley, Bob Kirchman, Bob -Torres, Jerry Miller and Gary Day, all from Moab. Winn jr-of jr-of the event was Jerry Miller. Notable entries in the major ma-jor events also included Joel Sublette, one of the nation's top Brahma bull riders, who makes his residence in Tucson. Tuc-son. Jay Hadley, winner of ths local steer wrestling last weekend has been a champion dogger for a number of years. Duane Sorenson, who h;ll the title of World Champion Intercollegiate In-tercollegiate Cowboy, was another an-other distinguished cowboy participating in the local 1968 rodeo. Only one entrant in the ro deo was injured seriously enough en-ough to be taken to the Allen Al-len Memorial Hospital. Wally Wickham of Tooele, Utah, fell from his bucking mount in the professional bareback c-vent c-vent Saturday Night and was struck in the back sharply by one of the back hoofs of the horse. He was taken to the hospital by Elmo Green who supplied ambulance servis for the rodeo. Wickham was released later that evening as his injuries were not extensive. extens-ive. One of the top attractions of the Canyonlands Rodeo was the performance of Jimmie Adams who maintained his footing atop two galloping palominos, his Golden Girls, MoIIey and Dolly. With breakneck break-neck speed Jimmie performed special movements upon the backs of the horses, acts which have given him fame throughout the country. Another feature was the comedy goat act put on by one of the clowns and his pet trick goats. They did everything every-thing but what the clown asked ask-ed them to do and ended their act with a pose of unique quality. A very essential part of a rodeo is its clowns who perform per-form the valuable service of keeping participants safe from angry stock. They also have the job of amusing the crowds and keeping the mood on a cheerful level. The Rodeo clowns this year were Denny Allen and Eddie McGrann, who both did a praisworthy task of attracting the animals' ani-mals' attention at the necessary neces-sary times. It was felt by participants and officials that this year's rodeo was quite successful, not only monetarily but from an entertainment standpoint - as well. |