bronc rider in
the world.”
After several
years of putting on
Wild West Shows,
Booger Red took
the opportunity
to disburse his
company among
some of the larger
productions then
touring. He knew
the smaller, family owned operations,
were a thing of the past. He and Mollie
then hired out their talents and performed
for some of the better-known Wild
West productions including the Miller
Bros., Buffalo Bill and Tom Mix. Booger
continued to ride broncs in exhibition all
the way up into the 1920s. It got so that
spectators were not satisfied with a show
unless Red put on a bronc riding show.
Having his name on the program was
definitely a draw.
Along the way, the Privett family
moved to Miami, Oklahoma, where
he lived until his death. He is one of
the few men who actually became a
legend in his own time. As Red got
older, his bronc riding exhibitions
slowed down a bit, but not by much.
He was a timeless bronc rider.
In 1924, at the Fort Worth
Stock Show and Rodeo, Red was
attending the rodeo as a spectator.
He witnessed a bad bronc toss his rider
high into the sky. The crowd then starting
hollering that “Booger Red could ride that
horse” and chanting, “Bring on Booger!”
So Booger Red jumped over the fence and
appeared in the arena, much to the delight
of the crowd.
The horse was caught again and brought
around for Booger to ride, which he did—
to a standstill. At fifty-nine years of age, he
could still outride the younger cowboys on
the baddest of horses.
Folks who witnessed that ride could not
tell it, but Red’s health had been failing him
by then. He suffered from Bright’s Disease
(Kidney Disease) and actually died from it
a few weeks after his famous last ride. On
his death bed, he told his family, “Always be
honest for it pays in the long run. Have all
the fun you can while you live for when you
are dead, you are a long time dead.”
The great Booger Red died in March
of 1924. Samuel Thomas “Booger Red”
Privett was posthumously inducted into the
National Cowboy and Western Heritage
Museum Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1975.
In your time of need,
IT’S WHAT YOU DO FIRST.
Our Stores in Arizona
Shoppers Supply
Triple D Feeds
Shoppers Supply
The Stock Shop
Gordon's Feed & Seed
H and S Feeds
Arizona Feeds Country Store
D C Cross Mercantile
www.SayWhoa.com
Apache Junction
Buckeye
Chandler
Glendale
Phoenix
Thatcher
Tucson
Wilcox
800-448-8180
by Stops Colic, LLC
AZintheSaddle.com
October 2014
45