CTA (Cowboys Turtle Association)

CTA's mission is to bring cowboys and rodeos into the limelight where the hard work and skills of real cowboys can receive credit for making this country what it is. We had to restart this Travel Bug because the original was lost.

By the mid-1920’s events that had been known as "cowboy tournaments" and "cowboy contests" were starting to be called rodeos. Championship events at Boston Garden and New York City’s Madison Square Garden were attracting nationwide attention. In 1936 Colonel W. T. Johnson received $80,000 to produce the Boston rodeo, plus the cowboys’ entry fees. But the prize money was only $7,000! The day of the first performance, a petition signed by 61 cowboys (forming the Cowboy Turtle Association) requesting entry fees be added to the purse was presented to Johnson. He refused, the cowboys walked out.

Using grooms, stable boys, wild west actors and roustabouts, and with the striking cowboys sitting in the audience booing, Boston Garden management finally called a halt to the performance, gave the spectators their money back, and told Colonel Johnson to “get right with the cowboys”. Day long negotiations finally made him agree to add the entry fees and the rodeo continued with new, improved rules.

The Cowboys Turtle Association was so named because while they were slow to organize, when push finally came to shove, they weren’t afraid to stick their necks out to get what they wanted. CTA existed from October 1936 to March 1945 when it became the Rodeo Cowboys Association. Then in 1975 the name was again changed to the present-day ProRodeo Cowboys Association.

For more information go to www.RodeoAttitude.com and read Gail Hughbanks Woerner’s writings. Be sure to visit the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and Museum of the American Cowboy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, for an awesome collection of cowboy/rodeo memorabilia.