Many of the all-time great professional cowboys and cowgirls have hailed from South Dakota. That’s why it’s nice to hear that the state finally has a museum dedicated solely to the sport of rodeo.
The Casey Tibbs South Dakota Rodeo Center at Fort Pierre officially opened this past weekend. The facility is described as a showplace for the sport of rodeo in South Dakota, its history and its stars.
The museum’s namesake, the late Casey Tibbs, was a native of the Fort Pierre area and is considered by some to be the greatest professional rodeo cowboy of all time. He won nine world chamionships — six in saddle-bronc riding, two in all-around and one in bareback riding. There is a 28-foot-tall statue of Tibbs riding a bucking horse at the Pro Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Tibbs had many other talents beyond rodeo. According to Wikipedia, he also was a "a stunt man, stunt coordinator, technical director, livestock consultant, wrangler and actor for the film industry." Through that work, Tibbs helped to promote and improve image of the sport of rodeo.
According to the Casey Tibbs South Dakota Rodeo Center, "Casey has been described as being to rodeo what Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were to baseball, what Jack Dempsey and Muhammad Ali were to boxing and what Red Grange was to football."
