Denver Stars

Major League Rodeo (1978-1979)

Background

Of the nearly 2,000 defunct teams profiled here on Fun While It Lasted this is the only one I can think of where we’ve relied on a souvenir trucker hat for the featured image. But such is the obscurity of Major League Rodeo, that we were thrilled to track down this snapback hat from the Denver Stars, the league’s first and only champions, in a Colorado vintage clothing shop.

The Stars were a co-ed professional team rodeo outfit that held competitions at the Denver Coliseum and at Penrose Stadium in Colorado Springs in 1978 and 1979. Denver was one of the six founding franchises in Major League Rodeo. They competed against rival teams from Kansas City, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Tulsa. Colorado cattle rancher Guthrie Packard Jr. owned the team.

Major League Rodeo contests consisted of seven skills – bareback bronc riding, barrel racing, team roping, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, steer wrestling and bull riding. Each team sported a roster of 12 cowboys & 3 cowgirls. Three team members competed in each of the seven events, which were contested twice separated by a 20-minute halftime.

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Dispute with Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association

The formation of a Major League Rodeo paralleled the experience of another 1970’s start-up sports league, World Team Tennis. Like WTT, Major League Rodeo sought to bring a tradition-bound individual sport to a broader audience by mimicking the conventions of established American sports leagues and introducing a new team-based scoring system. And also like WTT, Major League Rodeo swiftly ran afoul of the entrenched governing body of its sport. In this case, the Denver-based Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, who scoffed at Major League Rodeo’s team uniforms and its habit of referring to rodeo competitions as “games”. The PRCA refused to sanction MLR events and threatened its members with fines and suspensions if they signed with the new league.

Major League Rodeo held a series of drafts, distributing the negotiating rights to a majority of the PRCA’s top competitors. MLR’s pitch was the offer of a steady salary and coverage of the health and travel expenses that cowboys traditionally took upon themselves in their efforts to capture prize money at PRCA rodeos.

The PRCA’s threats combined with skepticism about Major League Rodeo’s financial backing resulted in many established cowboys declining to sign on with MLR in 1978. Such was the case with brothers Tom and Larry Ferguson of Oklahoma, the top two draft choices of Denver Stars. Tom Ferguson was the sport’s highest earning star of the era, the only cowboy to earn over $100,000 per year in prize money, and was the four-time reigning World Champion All-Around Cowboy.²Brown, Barbara J. “Fergusons turn down Denver Stars offer”. The Star-Tribune (Casper, WY). March 11, 1978 Several weeks before the 1978 kicked off, both Fergusons turned down the Stars’ contract offers.

Champions

Despite getting snubbed by the Ferguson brothers, the Denver Stars put together an excellent team in 1978. The roster included top steer wrestler Corky Irion, barrel racer Marlene Howe, and Carl Wilken, John Wilken and Phil Luman who ranked among MLR’s leaders in the team roping competition. Other stalwarts included husband and wife Bob Schall (bareback riding & steer wrestling) and Shari Schall (barrel racing), Don Gillespie (saddle bronc) and Doug Shipe (bull riding).

The Stars made their debut on April Fools Day 1978 with a 60-46 victory over the Los Angeles Roughriders before a crowd of 2,587 in the Denver Coliseum.

The Stars (20 wins, 4 losses) and the Tulsa Twisters (23 wins, 1 loss) rapidly emerged as the class of Major League Rodeo. None of the other four teams finished above .500. The Stars dealt the Twisters their only loss of the regular season. The teams met again in the league championship game in October 1978, with the Stars edging the Twisters by a single point, 56-55.

Collapse

The Stars returned for a second season in May 1979 along with the other five original MLR franchises. But the campaign swiftly descended into chaos. Major League Rodeo kicked out the Tulsa Twisters franchise midway through the season. The Kansas City Trailblazers became homeless when the roof of Kemper Arena collapsed. The Los Angeles Rough Riders’ insurance company forced them out of their home at the Santa Ana Bowl after numerous riders and animals suffered injuries on the venue’s riding surface.

In early July 1979, Major League Rodeo officials announced the cancellation of the rest of the regular season schedule. The Stars had the top record in the league at the time with a 10-2 record.

Major League Rodeo hoped to re-group for a championship series in August. But the league was never heard from again.

Trivia

The Denver Stars’ general manager in 1978 was Don Horn, a former 1st round draft pick of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers in 1967 and a member of the Packers’ Super Bowl II championship team.

In Memoriam

Denver Stars roper Phil Luman passed away on August 12th, 2021 following a battle with leukemia. He was 75 years old. Obituary.

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