One Tough Hand
Regarded as “the toughest
four-event cowboy around,” 1946 world champion team roper Chuck Sheppard was
one of the old-time greats. He carried Cowboy Turtles Association (CTA) # 68- a
number held the rest of his life. Of course, CTA eventually became known as the
Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA). He also won a world championship
in calf roping during 1951 in the International Rodeo Association and twice
finished up as the reserve all around champion.
He competed in every event in rodeo
at one time or another, but calf roping, team roping, bulldogging and saddle
bronc riding were his main events. Calf roping and bronc riding being where he
thrived in the early days. In an
interview, Chuck once said, “ I only quit riding bulls and bareback cause I’d
get sored up and it made my other work tough.”
Along with working every event,
Chuck also judged rodeos for over 25 years.
One year, at Cheyenne, he entered the steer wrestling and steer roping
events and judged the others! Amazing! He was also honored to flag the team
roping at the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) and the steer roping at the National
Finals Steer Roping (NFSR).
Chuck was inducted into the
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum Hall of Fame in 1985, the ProRodeo
Hall of Fame in 2000, the Phippen
Museum’s Arizona Ranchers & Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2008 and was
awarded the Ben Johnson award for rodeo excellence in 2001. First and foremost
however, Chuck Sheppard was a cowboy…
and a good-natured one at that!
Born on a ranch near Globe, Arizona
in 1916, he was a cowboy from the word go. Chuck’s parents had traveled from
Texas in a wagon. They set up their own ranch on Mescal Creek southeast of
Globe in the Pinal Mountains, an area so rough and remote, the only way in or
out, with or without supplies, was to pack in by horse or mule. Good cow dogs
are more practical than a fence in that country.
His dad, Horace (AKA Shep), thought
nothing about putting Chuck on a horse at a very young age. He expected his son
to “keep up.” By the age of nine, he was riding the rough string horses to
gentle them down for his little brother and mother to ride. He learned to catch
and “lead” wild cattle as a mere boy. By the time he was a teenager, he was one
tough cowboy, able to do things with horses and cattle even some seasoned hands
are unable to.
Younger brother, Lynn Sheppard,
once wrote, “Dad and Chuck roped the wild cattle on broncs and tied them to
trees. They were led out the next day... The Pinal Mountains were covered with
brush… dogs were a necessity.”
During the “dirty 30s,” at 16 years
of age, Chuck moved to California to be with his mother, hoping to find work
there. What he did find was an event that changed his life forever – he entered
a rodeo at Hayfork, California. Chuck once said, “I won some money, had fun
doing it and I think that’s what amazed me so much.” For the next 25 plus
years, Sheppard’s life revolved around rodeo. He became known as “Mr. Everything.”
As a testament to his all-around
abilities, he won numerous titles at both ends of the arena. Denver, Los
Angeles, Phoenix, Pendleton in calf roping and Salinas, Tucson, Chicago, Los
Angeles in bronc riding and all-around titles at Denver, Tucson, Prescott,
Lewiston and Boise to name a few. But
winning titles was not first in Chuck’s book – putting food on the table was.
He rodeo'd because it was a way to make a living.
Chuck’s youngest daughter, Lynda,
once said, “Rodeo wasn’t like it is now. Back then we’d get out of school and
be gone all summer. You’d stay eight or 10 days in Salinas, drive all night to
get to Cheyenne and stay in someone’s home. They did not have hotels (or living
quarter trailers) like they do now, they all did it - it was about survival.
They worked hard back then.”
“I rode bucking horses for 24
years,” Chuck said. “You can tell that by looking at me. I rode some of the
best there ever was and got bucked off some of the sorriest.”
Chuck also spent 10 years as a
board member of the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA), which is what the
association was known as between the CTA and PRCA. During that time, he is
credited for coming up with the design on the world-champion saddles, among
many other accomplishments.
In about 1951, the Sheppard family
moved from California to Arizona where Chuck spent the rest of his life. In ‘59
he retired from full-time rodeo, although he made the NFR in team roping during
1963 while only competing part time. He used to say, with a smile, “When I was
rodeoing, I always ate chicken…not superstitious - its just when I did good, I
ate the meat – when I did bad, I ate the feathers!”
During the late 1950s he went to
work for historic K4 ranch near Prescott, Arizona. He worked there until he
finally retired at 82 years of age, but he’d stayed so long he was just like
family...he never really retired. As a matter of fact, he did become family - his youngest daughter, Lynda, married John
Kieckhefer (grandson of Bob Kieckhefer who started the ranch) and they reside there
to this day - amongst others of the Kieckhefer clan.
K4 ranch owner, John Kieckhefer and
Chuck were instrumental in the purchase of the great stud “Driftwood Ike” in
1963 from Roy Wales. He stood at stud there for 17 years. This was a big
influence in taking the breeding program at the ranch to a new level. Sheppard
was in charge of the breeding program as well as the large cattle herd for the
ranch. Chuck partnered with John on many horses and ran a couple hundred head
of cows, owned with wife Gwen, on leased ground around the Prescott area as
well.
Along the way, and as a method to
show their remuda, Chuck got into showing and racing horses. He did very well
in the show ring and showed just about all classes including halter, cutting
and reining. He found great excitement in horse racing and, just as with rodeo,
Chuck found success on the track. “I got to running horses just for fun and
then one summer I won 13 races over at Prescott Downs.” One of his horses named
“Ant Hill” won 15 races in a year. Chuck wound up winning many stakes races
over the years.
He was one of those all-time great
cowboys who excelled at just about everything he did. Grandson, Rick Kieckhefer,
said, “If you didn’t learn something from him (Chuck), you weren’t listening
very good. He would help out anybody as long as they had a little try. He was
just as proud as he could be of people when they did well. He was a great guy
to have in your corner whether you were related to him or not.”
Every day Chuck Sheppard woke up,
he loved what he did, he was fun to be around, always upbeat and he had a
whimsical saying for just about everything.
Grandson, Charlie Lewis, told a
story on Chuck: “We were going into a big pasture in search of some remnant
cows, I was probably about 18 or 19. Granddad gave me instructions to make a circle;
boy it was a hot day, about 105. When I got back to the truck, probably an hour
and a half later, he was nowhere in sight. I loped up to the top of a hill
about half a mile distant to scan the country for him; a little worried about
him to be honest…he was pretty old then. When I got to the top of the hill,
there he was, asleep under a tree with his horse unsaddled. I noticed right
away the horse was not sweaty; he had probably ridden straight from the truck
to the tree to take a nap! When I woke him up, he said with a grin, ‘Horse got
hot, needed to cool him off!’”
Chuck was very fond of his family.
He and wife Gwen had two daughters, Stella and Lynda and a whole herd of
grandchildren, many of whom are well known in rodeo/cowboy circles to this day.
Not long after passing on to the next realm in 2005, some of the grandchildren
helped organize the “Chuck Sheppard Memorial Roping,” which raises money for
the Chuck and Gwen Sheppard memorial scholarship fund. The scholarship is given
to students who are enrolled full-time at Yavapai College and seek a degree in
agricultural or equine studies programs and are involved in organizations such
as FFA, 4-H, Arizona High School Rodeo Association and Arizona Junior Rodeo
Association. The event will enjoy its 6th year in 2012.
During an interview prior to being
inducted into the “Cowboy Hall of Fame” Chuck said, “We’ve had an exciting life
– started out with nothing so there was nowhere to go but up…”
Jim Olson © 2012
