By Ryan Duey
Andrews Rodeo Co. has been the Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo stock contractor in Abilene for the past 25 years.
Sammy Andrews, his wife Jacel, son James, and his crew have been coming to Abilene since 2000, bringing their industry-renowned bucking horses and bulls.
When the Abilene rodeo committee decided to hire Andrews, they went to the North Texas State Fair in Denton to talk to him.
Roger Watt was president of the committee, and Andrews remembers it. “Me and Roger made a connection,” he said. Watt told Andrews he wanted Andrews to bring his best horses and bulls to Abilene. “I told him I’d always bring my best,” Andrews said. “I appreciated his honesty. I think a lot of him.”
Through 25 years of working with Andrews, he and Watt have become good friends, so good that when Watt’s granddaughter, Rylee Miller, died in a vehicle accident in 2013, Andrews made the trip to Kansas for her funeral.
Andrews named one of his bucking horses in honor of Rylee: Rylee’s Raisin Cane, a bareback horse that was selected to buck at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Bareback rider Bobby Mote won a round at the Wrangler NFR on Rylee’s Raisin Cane, and Andrews gave the buckle for his horse to the Watt family.
“Sammy said, this buckle belongs to Roger’s family,” Watt said. “That is special.”
Watt appreciates his friend’s honesty. “He’s honest with you. I think the man is as honest as the day is long. He’s a damn good friend.”
Over the past quarter-century, horses and bulls with names like Roly Poly, All or Nothin, Cool Water, Lock and Load, PTSD Power Play, The Kracken, and Ice Trey have been coming to Abilene, with one goal: buck off their rider.
The high quality of bucking animals means a higher quality of riders, Watt said. Cowboys choose where to compete, and they’ll go where they have a good chance of making a high-point ride.
By the time he was in high school, Andrews produced his first rodeo with his friends.
The son of Burr Andrews and grandson of Sam Andrews, both stock contractors, there were always horses and bulls on the Andrews Ranch near Bagwell, Texas.
“We always had some horses we were breaking, and bulls we’d buy at the sale barn to try,” Andrews said. “Us kids built a ragged old pen, and we had enough horses and bulls to put on a little rodeo.”
After high school graduation in 1965, he went to college and then went to work for Jerald Smith, a stock contractor. For Smith, Andrews started in the calf and steer pens, then graduated to flanking bucking horses and worked as a pickup man before becoming partners with Smith in the late 1970s. He struck out on his own in 1987, when he became a PRCA member.
Andrews’ most famous animal might be the bull Bodacious. Born in 1989, he bought him after his bucking career had started. He bucked off countless cowboys and was a two-time PRCA Bull of the Year and won the PBR Bull of the Year once.
“He was a freak of nature, I guess,” Andrews said. The now-defunct Bull Riders Only organization was going, and the PBR was just getting its start, so Bodacious got a lot of air time with both groups. “He opened a lot of doors for us. He had a way of doing things at the right time.” Bodacious died in 1999 and is buried on the ranch.
Several years ago, someone offered to buy Andrews’ rodeo company. Sammy and his family sat down and talked it over. “It was a pretty good offer to sell out,” he remembers. “The money was good, but I said, it doesn’t matter about the money. I just couldn’t face rodeo committees like Roger Watt and tell them I wasn’t coming back. We’ve built family relationships and I appreciate them, and I think they appreciate us.”
Now the fourth generation of the Andrews family is in charge, Sammy’s son James.
“I do whatever James tells me to do,” Sammy laughed. “I let him run the company. You can’t have two bosses. I let him run it, and whatever he tells me to do, I do it.”
He loves what he does.
“We enjoy it. It’s fun. If it weren’t fun, we wouldn’t do it. We enjoy what we do.”
Andrews’ livestock has been selected to buck at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo every year since 1989.
Sammy was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame earlier this month; he is a member of the Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame, as is Bodacious. Bodacious is a member of the Bull Riding Hall of Fame and the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and is a 2019 PBR Brand of Honor winner.
This year’s Wild Bill Hickok Rodeo is Tuesday through Friday, July 30-August 2 at the fairgrounds in Abilene. Performances start at 7:30 pm nightly.
