The First NFR Saddle Bronc Rider Bill Feddersen Has Passed Away At 98

The rodeo community is in mourning today as the first ever saddle bronc rider to compete at the National Finals Rodeo, Bill Feddersen, has passed away at 98.

He was the first rider to come out of the shoot all the way back in 1959, and since then, his legacy has been huge. Feddersen paved the way for many rodeo athletes who compete today, and was part of an exclusive group of saddle bronc riders that set the stage for the event at the NFR.

Feddersen was a part of the group that created the sport as we know it today. As a competitor at the first NFR, held in Dallas, Texas at the time, only $10,000 was up for grabs. Money didn’t matter to Feddersen as he became a legend in the saddle bronc arena.

The cowboy was born in 1927 and raised in Union City, Oklahoma, where he grew up and ran a farm and raised beef cattle alongside his younger brother, Don, and the rest of the family. He began his legacy at a young age, breaking his first horse himself.

Back then, there weren’t too many people paving the way for rodeo- so these cowboys had to do it themselves. In an interview from 2013, Feddersen talked about the early years of his career,

“I may hold a record in the rodeo business, I placed in nine different events,” Feddersen told Rodeo Life, “bull riding, bareback, saddle bronc, team roping, bull dogging, calf roping, wild cow milking, the wild horse race, and the steer decorating up in Canada.”

By 1943, Feddersen was in high school and for the first time stepped into a rodeo arena. His first rodeo was for the Cowboy Turtle Association, which later became the Rodeo Cowboys Association and then the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. As he grew up, he continued to rodeo before he was drafted into the Army during World War II.

It wasn’t until five years later that Feddersen would return to the arena. He went on to compete on some of the world’s most prestigious stages, including those at Madison Square Garden and the Boston Garden. By 1959, he was seasoned enough to be selected to compete at the first ever NFR.

He took to the arena in two events that year- saddle bronc riding and steer wrestling. Trying over nine different events over the years to figure out which one stuck- he obviously managed to find success in the former. He went on to qualify five more times.

One year later, his brother Don joined him at the second NFR where the pair became the first brothers to compete in a timed event at the Finals. Although he retired from rodeo in 1962, he and his wife Donna continued to go to the event every year.

In 2013, Feddersen was inducted into the National Hall of Fame.

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