Copyright © by the Southern Rural Sociological Association CAMPUS COWBOYS AND COWGIRLS:

College rodeo has evolved from small, single-campus fund-raisers, celebrations, and/or competitions into an internationally recognized North American collegiate sport. Throughout its history, though, the sport has received virtually no attention in the sociological literature. In this research note I provide a descriptive summary of member characteristics and selected findings from a 2003-2004 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association membership survey. I also empirically examine the association of size of place of residency during childhood with previous involvement in rodeo (i.e., before participating in college rodeo). Findings reveal that respondents who spent most of their childhood in more rural areas (i.e., in the countryside outside any city or town) have participated in rodeo (or rodeo-related events), on average, for more years than those who primarily resided in more urban locales (i.e., a city of 50,000 or more) during childhood. Why shouldn’t the range kids have a chance to show off at college? Kids brought up on remote ranches haven’t had the coaching to do anything spectacular in football or basketball. Some of them never saw enough water to swim in before they went to college, and as for track, can you imagine a cowpuncher in a little pair of running pants sprinting across the desert? Ranchers hate to walk, let alone run. Rodeo is their natural sport. They’ve grown up riding daddy’s cows. – quote from a cattleman-father [see Muir (1951)]