DAVE BROCK

Dave Brock, the Kansas cowboy who now calls Texas home, returned to Ellensburg in 2024 to join team roper Charles Pogue and the Eaton family as inductees to the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame.

Brock earned an assortment of buckles from Ellensburg – the All-Around in 1973, two wild cow milking championships in 1977 and 1986 and two steer wrestling buckles in 1980 and 1981.

 

However, before his first trip to Ellensburg, the Midwesterner was already making a name for himself. Brock was the Rodeo Cowboy’s Association’s Rookie of the Year in 1972 but he didn’t make his first trip to the Northwest – including Ellensburg – until 1973, right after winning his second straight All-Around championship at the College National Finals Rodeo competing for Southern Colorado State College.

 

He didn’t know much about Ellensburg or the Northwest, but he learned quick. “The Northwest rodeos were off by themselves,” he remembered. “A lot of guys would stay down south, but as the prize money got better with word of mouth, it drew more southern guys. After a while, I never missed them. I loved them.

 

“The Northwest became my deal. The rodeos were good. The big arenas, long scores, fresher cattle. Weather was good. Culture and environment were great. I liked that entire Northwest group of rodeos.”

And Brock quickly made money here. Brock’s All-Around earnings of $1,271 earned him top billing in his first year at Ellensburg and he kept winning and placing here for years to come, including wild cow milking. While not a PRCA-sanctioned event, wild cow milking – which draws as much laughter as it does applause – is still a serious buckle to win in Ellensburg.

 

“I was new to cow milking,” Brock said. “I won it twice, including with Johnny Sloan one year. I think Johnny and I won second another year. Jerry Anderson let me ride his horse every year for the event.”

 

Brock finally broke through on the national stage, earning his first National Finals Rodeo qualification in 1977. He made the NFR seven times as a calf roper and another three times as a bulldogger. He won the world championship in calf roping in 1978.

 

Brock said the event that came most naturally to him was calf roping, “but I loved steer wrestling more than I did calf roping. I don’t know why. When I first got in, I didn’t steer wrestle very much until later years. I didn’t enter every rodeo in the steer wrestling in the early years. After a while I worked on the bulldogging more and became better with the technique and got stronger and that was a big change.”

 

When he entered Ellensburg’s big-man event in the early 1980s, he was successful. He won buckles two years in a row with identical 9.9-second averages on two head in 1980 and 1981.

“When I first started, I could ride half of the steers instead of bringing ‘em down,” he laughed.

As the 1990s hit the calendar, the lure of being home beckoned. “I quit around 1992,” he remembered. “I was 29th in the world or so, still within reach of the NFR. I just came to a time in my life when I wanted to be home with my kids and my wife.”

As soon as full-time rodeo ended, he initially went full-time to a desk job.

“Came home and got a job at a telemarketing firm, then the construction industry. I worked the day shift and then rode at night with my family. We worked at it and that’s how we made it.”
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Brock looks at rodeo now – not just the Professional Cowboys Rodeo Association, but amateur groups and large ropings – and marvels at the money that is on the table today compared to the 1970s and 1980s.

“You look at not only the roughstock, but all of the timed events,” he stated. “The increase and availability of prize money is so much greater than when we rodeoed. It’s an exciting time for a lot of people. It’s life changing type of money. We never had that kind of money.”

He’s not bitter at all, but he also understands how social media and TV increases the exposure of rodeo to die-hard fans and new viewers who might not understand rodeo at first but get interested.

“The culture has changed,” he continued. “I’m not saying that’s bad, it’s just different.”

 So is the caliber of athletes in the arena.  “The guys today make rodeo their business,” Brock said. “They spend more time in the gym. We saw more active guys as the 90’s came. There were plenty of great athletes in the 70s and 80s, but we never worked at it like guys do now.”

But he is still working at it now.

 “Hell, I’m 73 and I still rope all the time,” he said with a smile. “Nothing’s changed, we’re just getting older.”