by Wendel Sloan Communication Services

"I'm happy as a lark. I wouldn't trade my life for anything." – B. J. Pierce

ENMU graduate B. J. Pierce, 89, was inducted into the National Western Cowboy Hall of Fame and Museum in Oklahoma City on Sept. 26.

The Hall includes such luminaries as Western actor Slim Pickens, all-around cowboy Bob Crosby, bull riders Ty Murray and Lane Frost and steer wrestler Homer Pettigrew of Grady.

Mr. Pierce, born on Aug. 22, 1926, received a bachelor's in industrial arts from Eastern in 1949 and a master's in education in 1962.

He won three consecutive International Rodeo Association (IRA) calf-roping titles from 1952-54 – the only three-time IRA calf-roping champion.

He played basketball for the Greyhounds for one year in 1945 for Al Garten. "We were crummy," he said. (In the 1944-45 season the team finished and 3-20 and 3-17 1945-46.

He soon decided that riding horses to rope calves was more rewarding than being ridden by coaches. With a combination of speed and skill, in his first summer of doing rodeo during college Mr. Pierce won $13,000 — enough in the 1940s to pay his and his wife's way through college for all four years.

Mr. Pierce said, "After my first summer of roping, I came back to Eastern and told Coach Garten. 'I'm not trying to be smart, but I'm not going to play basketball anymore. I made enough money this summer to pay Patti's and my way through college for four years.' Neither one of us had to work."

He estimates he won around $130,000 in his rodeo career, which would be multiplied several times in today's money.

Mr. Pierce says he saved money by "camping out in a tent with a sleeping bag, and using a Coleman stove for cooking."

Born and raised in Clovis, Mr. Pierce lived and did rodeo out of California for five years. He also worked in advertising for Western Horseman Magazine in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He gathered information about cowboys and their horses for his wife, Patti, an ENMU graduate in journalism, to write articles for the magazine.

Mr. Pierce continued to rodeo well into the 1960s. He won money at places as diverse as Cuba, Boston, San Francisco, Tucson, Denver, Kansas City, Cheyenne (Wyoming). Reno (Nevada), Omaha (Nebraska), Washington, Texas and at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

Rodeo historian Gail Hughbanks Woerner wrote, "His grandfather Jernigan, a well-known cowboy, saw that B. J. got to rope every afternoon and taught him well. His first roping win was in 1945 at Tucumcari, New Mexico, where he joined the R.C.A. and won between $300 and $400.

"B. J. also competed in team roping, steer roping and wild cow milking during his competitive years.

"Most weekends he went to Bob Crosby's ranch to rope. His second year in college, Shorty Matlock offered to take him down the rodeo road. Matlock was a seasoned roper that saw B. J.'s potential. When he roped, he also entered B. J. and provided the pickup, a horse and all expenses. Matlock gave B. J. one-fourth of their winnings.

"B. J. met Pattie Rawls at college, fell in love and got married. In time, B. J. quit basketball and concentrated strictly on roping."

In a short summary of his career, his friend Chris Webber wrote:

"While competing at Madison Square Garden in New York City, Pierce was approached by a talent scout. B. J. wired home that he was going to be ‘rich and famous.' The scout presented B. J. and a few other cowboys to a prospective client, who looked them over from head to toe and watched them walk.

"But when they had him take off his hat, that nearly bald head doomed the deal. B.J. wired back home, ‘No hair. No money."

According to Ms. Webber, in 1952 Mr. Pierce won the coveted 2nd Annual Clovis Championship Roping against 16 other veteran ropers. His average time of 71.6 beat the second-place roper by a full five seconds. His prize money for the afternoon was close to $5,000.

"Throughout his 14-year rodeo career, B. J. Pierce put only one thing before winning, that was having fun," Ms. Webber wrote. "Even now, at 89 years of age, B. J. still likes to have fun."

Mr. Pierce has three children and four grandchildren. His son Ben Grady, an investment specialist, is an ENMU graduate who lives in Canyon, Texas. His daughter, Rena Winkler, has an accounting degree from ENMU and works at a hospital in Alamogordo, New Mexico. His son John is a lawyer in Spokane, Washington.

In addition to his rodeo career, Mr. Pierce taught for 31 years in Clovis schools — including Highland Elementary, Lincoln-Jackson Elementary, and he was the principal at James Bickley Elementary.

"I loved both careers. I did finally get tired of doing rodeo. It's tough on your body, especially when you get older," said Mr. Pierce, who broke his leg during one rodeo.

"I loved all the action in the classroom, and the different personalities. You'd be surprised at how many former students I see all the time," said Mr. Pierce. "They say, ‘Do you remember me?'

"They've all gone on to successful careers. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen one who was a failure. If I did, I would go have a talk with them."

In an editorial in the Clovis News-Journal, David Stevens wrote, "It's the post-rodeo career in which many in the Clovis area came to know and admire B. J. Pierce on a personal level.

"He was a longtime elementary school teacher and principal whose lessons went beyond the classroom.

"'He was a man who not only cared if you learned school curriculum, but also cared that you learned about life,'" said Clovis' Don Reid, a sixth-grade student of Mr. Pierce's at Highland Elementary School.

The editorial added, "It's difficult to imagine a more worthy inductee — a world-class rodeo performer who inspired thousands in the arena and, more importantly, in the classroom where he taught individual responsibility and values — than B.J. Pierce."

Mr. Pierce says some of the faculty and staff that stand out in his memory from his ENMU days are Dr. Carl Parker, Thelma Mallory and Claude Burns Wiebel in education, O. M. Williamson in agriculture, and Eugene Mann, the publicity and publications director.

Mr. Pierce, who was president of the agricultural club at Eastern, has great memories of ENMU.

"I've had a lifetime of good memories from my days at Eastern. "Being in a fraternity, playing basketball, classmates and professors, making lots of money doing rodeo. I never had so much fun.

"These are lifetime bonds that never break. Of course, most of the people I knew then are gone."

Mr. Pierce says, at 89, he never thinks about dying. "I don't worry about anything. I have good health, good friends and I'm still mobile and active. "I am very happy with what I've accomplished in life, including being inducted into the rodeo hall of fame. It's been very satisfying, and everywhere I go – even in Timbuktu – I run into people I know. "I'm happy as a lark because I have a lot of nice people around me. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. It has been a blessing."