Name: Brian White Age: 44
Hometown: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Current residence: Midwest City, Oklahoma
Occupation: Horse Breeder, Rodeo Clown
Education: Capitol Hill High School (Oklahoma City), Bethany College (Lindsbork, Kansas) - Bacheolor's in Recreation
I remember my second-grade teacher (Ms. Sidney Hill) telling me, "Brian White, you'll never get anywhere in life acting like a clown!" Boy, was she wrong! Little did she know I was perfecting the art of comedy while disrupting class. She got to see the early shows for free!
I was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I have been around horses and the sport of rodeo all my life. When I was a kid I would try to ride anything that would stand still long enough for me to get on it. And It didn't make much difference what it was. My family used to put on a Labor Day rodeo at our place in Paris, Arkansas, where I would spend the entire summer riding horses and living out my cowboy dreams. My brother, cousins and I would take our ponies over to our arena, flank them grab a handful of mane hair and take turns in our own bareback riding competition.
I went to college to play football and compete in track and field. After being involved in poor high school athletic programs, it was a breath of fresh air to be invovled with other people that wanted to win. I went from winning two to three football games a year to playing on three consecutive conference football championships and earning All-America honors in track.
After I was done with college I went right back to riding bulls. After I got married and my two oldest daughters were born, I quit rodeo and concentrated on a regular job and training horses. I worked five years in Beloit, Kansas, as a youth services specialist for the State of Kansas, then, in the spring of 1994, I took a job as sports program specialist for the City of Salina Kansas Parks and Recreation Department. That fall I happened to attend my first rodeo in five years at Brookville, Kansas. The bullfighter broke his ankle on the first or second bull out, and some old friends asked if I would step out there and help out (get run over). I got along with it pretty good and decided it would be a way for me to stay involved in rodeo.
I must have called every stock contractor I knew in the area and asked if they needed a bullfighter. Everybody turned me down until I called Lial Dodge from Kingman, Kansas. Lial gave me a chance, and I owe him a lot for that. I got a lot of exposure working his bull ridings and got to work for John McDonald, who was the production manager for Bull Riders Only (predecessor or the PBR). I was fighting bulls at those bull ridings for a year before I realized those same bulls were being hauled to those nationally televised events!
I joined the International Professional Rodeo Association in 1997 and was the 1999 IPRA Freestyle Bullfighting World Champion. A few years later, I went to work for the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo and really got to see the country. I have worked junior, high school, college, open and amateur and professional rodeos and PBR events from coast to coast. I've had the honor of protecting some of the best rodeo athletes in the modern era. Some since they started out riding sheep! It's great to see them grow up and end up on televised events.
I worked as a recreational therapist for the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse in a facility for kids in Norman, Oklahoma, for about seven years and was layed off due to budgetary reasons last year. This gave me the chance to concentrate on rodeo and my horses on a full-time basis. I have to say it was the best thing to happen to me. I can pick up and go rodeo when I want. Make as much or as little money as I want, and truly live the rodeo cowboy life.
