Sixty-four years ago, in 1959, Jim Rodriguez Jr. won his? rst of four world team roping titles at 18. To this day, he’s the youngest cowboy ever to win a gold buckle in any event.? at was also the year the inaugural National Finals Rodeo debuted in Dallas, though the team roping, steer roping and barrel racing were held in Clayton, New Mexico. Rodriguez also won his? rst of four NFR average crowns at that very first Finals, heading for legendary all-around hand Gene Rambo. Now 82, Rodriguez will be inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City on November 11.
This will be Rodriguez’s fourth Hall of Fame induction. He was a member of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame’s inaugural Class of 1979, and also was enshrined in the California Rodeo Salinas Hall of Fame in 2010, and the Salinas Valley Sports Hall of Fame in 2015.
“The best thing that ever happened to me in my career was being part of the first group of cowboys ever inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs,” said Rodriguez, who with his wife, Nancy, makes his home in Riverdale, California. “To go in there with guys like Leo (Camarillo), (John) Miller and Dale Smith was the greatest honor.
“There was no induction ceremony back then, and they sent me the induction bronze 10 years later. But to be in that Hall the day they opened the doors meant a lot, even though the first time I went through the Hall to see myself in there I had to pay. I did get a small discount for showing them my RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association) card. But they charged me to get in.”
It feels fitting for Rodriguez to also
