October 16, 2018
The 1985 PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year 018 Cowtown was born on a ranch in Pilesgrove, New Jersey. The ranch and its weekly rodeo called Cowtown, for which 018 was named, is between New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It’s not an ordinary place for a bucking bull to grow up. But then Cowtown was no ordinary bucking bull.
“When we had 018, nobody knew for sure who his daddy was,” said Grant Harris, a 4th generation Harris who currently runs Cowtown Rodeo and grew up in the family business. “We had a Brahma bull named Playboy who got crippled and we laid him off bucking. We put him out on a hundred head of crossbred Brahma cows,” Harris went on to explain. “We had 2 bulls out there with those cows. 018’s daddy could have been either one of them.”
Back when Cowtown was born, record keeping on lineage was not something that Cowtown Ranch did.
“In the fall, we’d separate the bull calves from the females. There was no record keeping,” Harris told us. “We didn’t know what calf went with what cow.”
But Harris had a strong feeling about who sired the bull who would come to be called Cowtown. Playboy passed on some telltale features to his offspring and Harris saw these in 018.
“018 had the head of Playboy and he had his eyebrows. Playboy’s calves had distinctive features. They had a white patch and 018 had one. Who knows?” Harris said with a laugh. “100 cows out in the pasture and no way to tell what calf belonged to which one and what bull was the daddy. I just always thought that it was Playboy.”
Harris doesn’t remember much about Cowtown up until he watched him buck in their weekly rodeos as a 3 year old.
“He was impressive for a 3 year old,” said Harris. “He bucked almost everybody off. There was only one rider who rode him and that was in a practice pen. And 018 started a trend he followed throughout all of his career,” Harris went on to say.
That trend might well be another link to the bull Harris still thinks might well have been Cowtown’s sire. Playboy had a reputation for hooking the cowboys who got on his back, either on the way down or when they hit the dirt.
“018 would buck them off and then the rider would get a hookin’. Then 018 would go after the clown,” chuckled Harris. “He didn’t miss very many.”
Cowtown was a handful at the age of 3, but as he grew up, he became easier to work with.
“He was a big, strong bull,” said Harris. “He weighed about 1750 and as a 3 year old, he was flighty. But as a 4 year old, he calmed down and he was no problem to handle.”
As the stock contractor, Harris might not have had a problem handling 018, but for the riders it was just the opposite, even though they knew what the bull was going to do.
“The riders had to respect him. He’d bring them around into the well,” explained Harris. “He left the chute hard and then he’d really blow out. I’d think, ‘Here comes that right hard turn.’ It was his claim to fame.”
018 started to get a reputation, and in 1984 Cowtown Rodeo sold 018 to Benny Beutler. That was the beginning of a stellar career for the bull who was born and bred in New Jersey.
“I never bred 018 to any cows,” Harris told us. “He was being used in the rodeo and getting people’s attention bucking. I sold him to Benny Beutler without ever getting a calf from him.”
As for who sired Cowtown, Harris still has his suspicions. But then again, maybe looks are deceiving.
Keep a lookout for Part 2: Cowtown – PRCA Champion Bull
by Terry Lidral
for Bucking Stock Talk Magazine
Thanks for interesting read.