Self-Made Cowboy

The Hollywood version of the ideal cowboy is a Gary Cooper type, with a quick draw, a thick drawl and the sprawl of the Far West in his gait. Last week the picture cowboy was put to shame by a cowpoke from the wide open spaces of Peekskill, N.Y. Hard-riding Harry Tompkins. who learned his trade on a Catskill dude ranch, was named all-round world-champion cowboy of 1952 by the Rodeo Cowboys' Association.

Riding only his two specialties--bareback broncs and wild bulls--the self-made cowboy outdid the best from the West, and won world titles in both events.

Matching his point score against the all-round cowpokes who also compete in calf roping, steer wrestling and saddle-bronc riding. Tompkins then outclassed the field for all-round honors with 30.935 points.

Runner-up: Cowboy Buck Rutherford, a real range hand from Nowata, Okla.. with 28.805.

Wild & Woolly. Tompkins started his cowboy career as a 14-year-old doing a traditional task: shoveling manure. Ten hours on the job earned him two hours of riding. "But I never could get enough." Tompkins recalls now. "At night I'd go out in the pasture to ride. I did that for four years." At 19, Tompkins rode his first wild bull ("They're not as squirmy as horses"), and entered his first rodeo in Springfield, Mass. Then an eight-second ride at Madison Square Garden earned him $310, and Tompkins decided that the wild & woolly sport of bull riding was an easy way to make money. Within a year, Tompkins was the best in the world, won bull-riding championships three years running (1948-50).

Marriage did not slow down Tompkins' breakneck career. Wife Rosemary is the daughter of a rodeo producer and a topflight performer in her own right. Working in his spine-jarring sport where broken arms & legs are commonplace, Tompkins has only had one real injury: a pulled thigh ligament. The enforced month's layoff ("I knew I wouldn't be at my best") made nervous, gum-chewing Tompkins edgier than ever, kept him out of action just long enough to lose the bull-riding title in 1951.

Hustle & Bustle. In 1952, taking aim on the all-round title, Tompkins set out to top the other 2,500 members of the Rodeo Cowboys' Association. He set himself a backbreaking. hustling schedule around the rodeo circuit: 7,000 miles in his Cadillac, another 30,000 by air. At one time, chartering a plane with two other cowboys, he made five rodeos in four days. Another time, boarding commercial air liners for night flights ("It's cheaper than paying hotel bills"), Tompkins made overlapping shows in New York, Omaha, Denver. Boston and San Francisco. The hustle & bustle paid off with stacks of trophies (30 belt buckles, 20 pairs of boots, ten hats; as well as the world championship.

Since each of Cowboy Tompkins' 30.-935 points represents a dollar in winnings, he has had a highly profitable year. "If I have three more good years," says Tompkins, now an old hand of 25, "I will have enough saved up to go into business." Business to the self-made New York cowboy is now "cow business," on an up & coming cattle ranch he now owns in Dublin, Texas.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.