Larry Mahan

The National Finals opened in Oklahoma City December 3, 1966. For his first saddle bronc, Mahan drew the notorious Jake, Bucking Horse of the Year for 1960 and 1965. “I had Jake three times in 1966 and he wiped me out every trip!” Mahan commented ruefully. “I just don’t get along with him. He really bucked with me at Gladewater, Tex., and flat threw me off. At the Houston rodeo he was just bad and hard to ride and, at the Finals, he ran halfway across the arena before he finally started to buck and threw me off. I think I’m plagued with him; I hope that third time is the last!”

Mahan split a second in the fifth go-round, marking 72 on a Flying U bronc called Joker. In the seventh, he was second with a similar score on Fettig’s 12-year-old sorrel gelding, Red Pepper.

“I had Red Pepper at Deadwood, S.D., which was probably my best rodeo for bronc riding in 1966,” he said. “I won a go-round on him there. He’s a real good horse to draw and you can win a lot of money on him.”

In the Finals’ bareback riding event, Mahan was fourth in two go-rounds, split fourth in a third and split first in the last go-round with a 68-marked ride on Harry Knight’s Devils Partner. The latter was voted best bareback horse at the NFR from 1959 through 1963.

Bull riding is probably rodeo’s most dangerous event and Mahan has had his share of skirmishes with the twisting, gyrating beasts. In 1961, a bull named Rattler broke his jaw; three years later, another bull, aptly named Stonehead, broke it for him again.

Out of his eight bulls at the Finals, Mahan rode three.

“I more or less fell off my first four bulls,” Mahan related. “then I developed a heck with it attitude. I had ’66’ of Steiner’s for my fifth on and I think he’s a real bad bull.”

Steiner’s ’66’ is a big 1,500-pound yellow bull that has been on the rodeo circuit for five years. In 1966 alone, ’66’ disqualified 39 out of 40 bull riders.

“I had him in Memphis in ’65,” Mahan continued. “He threw me off the first jump out of the gate and kicked me in the seat with both feet! That’s his worst part right there; the first three or four jumps out of the chute he’s real bad and then, after that, he isn’t real smooth but he gets a little better. I know I hated to get on him at the Finals because he had wiped me out so fast before.

“I kinda loosened up and, thinking, I don’t give a darn, I happened to get by him and won third, marking 65! I could have marked more maybe but I was upside down when the whistle blew so it cost me a point or two on my ride.

“I won the next go-round on ’18’ of Kinney Brothers and then rode my next bull for nothing. My last bull, ’53’ of Kelsey’s, threw me off; he sure fought, too!”

When the televised last performance of the National Finals was over, Mahan’s total money won for the year 1966 amounted to $40,358 which put him in the company of only three other rodeo cowboys who have earned over $40,000 in one rodeo season. These three, who won their pace-setting totals from ten to twelve seasons ago, include the illustrious Buck Rutherford (1954), Casey Tibbs (1955), and Jim Shoulders (1956) who won $43,381.

The champion contested at more than ninety rodeos in 1966 flying to 65 of them. Mahan logged close to 500 hours on his Commanche from March to the end of the year. He often gives other cowboys rides to rodeos and, when asked how they plan to get to a rodeo, they will reply: “We’re flying B.M.A.!” referring to Bull Mahan Airlines, a nickname hung on the champion by Shawn Davis, 1965 World Saddle Bronc Champion, after seeing the movie, The Rounders.

The top 15 bronc riders vote annually for the horse they regard as Bucking Horse of the Year. Mahan has scored on three of them, Wanda Dee, Big John and Descent.

“I rode Wanda Dee, a real good horse, at Deadwood in 1966 to win second in the go-round,” remembered Mahan. “I had Big John, who was Bucking Horse of the Year twice, at Omaha and won second on him. Then I rode Descent at Odessa in 1967 but didn’t ride him very good and only marked 56; right after that, I fell off two ‘whipped creams’!” Mahan again had Descent at the ’67 National Finals and he marked 79 this time.

Mahan’s favorite bareback horse is Pretty Socks, a ten-year-old palomino gelding owned by Beutler Brothers. He won prize money on him at Nampa, Ida., last year and at the Finals.