2002
Jim “Balzac” Dunn - Contestant
Inducted - November 1, 2002
Jim Dunn
James Lorne Dunn was born September 17, 1955 in Calgary, and called Balzac, AB, home during his competing years. Like many others, he got his start in a little britches rodeo at the age of 15 riding cows. In pro competition Jim primarily rode bareback, but also rode bulls well enough to qualify for the Canadian Finals. When he turned pro in 1976, he wasted no time earning accolades: he was named the CPRA Rookie of the Year.
A master of consistency, Jim qualified for 20 Canadian Finals in all, the second highest number in Canadian history, to date. During his professional career, Jim racked up three Canadian Bareback championships: 1980, 1985 and 1986. He qualified for the NFR six times. In 1983, Jim was the Calgary Stampede Bareback $50,000 winner.
A former president of the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, Jim always valued the people in rodeo, and the friendships he formed. "(Rodeo) still means a lot to me," said Dunn in a 1998 interview. "When I started, I didn't have much except a van and a riggin' bag."
Continuing a lifetime of commitment to the sport of rodeo, Jim now works as a Pro official, judging many rodeos in the CPRA.
Guilty Cat - Animal
Inducted –November 1, 2002
Guilty Cat
Calgary Stampede's bucking horse Guilty Cat was one of their own, born in 1975 and raised through their born-to-buck program at the Calgary Stampede ranch in Hanna, AB. The bay gelding known as The' Cat was a huge 1,650 pounds. He challenged the cowboys in both saddle bronc and bareback riding.
Guilty Cat made 16 Canadian Finals and 12 National Finals appearances during his career. He was a four-time Canadian bucking horse of the year, twice in the bronc riding (1982 & 1985) and twice in the bareback (1981 & 1989). He was also the NFR champion bareback horse in 1981, and won silver at the Olympic rodeo in 1988.
While he packed four $50,000 Calgary Stampede champions to their victories in just eight years, Guilty Cat missed winning the World title three times by only a few votes. (Then) Stampede Rodeo Manager Winston Bruce's theory about this: "He's been so darned consistent year after year that they forgot about him."
Rex Logan - Builder
Inducted - November 1, 2002
Rex Logan
A Canadian Professional Rodeo Association stock sub-contractor from 1987 to 2000, Rex Logan had a hand in bringing some of the best bucking horses ever ridden in the history of professional rodeo.
Some of the champions he raised included World and Canadian champion bronc, Try Me, who was bucked in Canada with Wayne Vold until Rex sold her at the first Benny Binion Bucking Horse Sale in Las Vegas in 1984. She was purchased by Mesquite Rodeo of Texas. Calgary Stampede’s superstar World champion bareback and saddle bronc horse Lonesome Me and their prize stallion, Cowboy, Ted Vayro’s (Grasslands) Canadian champion bareback, Moon (originally owned by Rex's late son Gary & was named for him) were all raised by Rex.
1984 was a stand-out year for Logan’s proteges. Try Me wound up with the World and Canadian bronc of the year halters, and was second for the NFR honours, while Lonesome Me was the co-winner of the World title, won the Canadian halter, and was named top bareback horse of the National Finals. Try Me had a truly dramatic finish, carrying Brad Gjermundson to a world championship in the final ride of the final day. Try Me would return to the NFR in 1989 with Mesquite Rodeo of Texas.
“I was darn proud of them,” said Logan in 1984. “They done what I wanted them to do. They both bucked; they both did better than I expected. It’s like a love story about a girl ending the way you want it. It couldn’t be any better for me.” The 80-year-old Logan, based in Sundre, AB, continued to raise some of the top bucking horses in pro rodeo until his passing on May 18, 2011.
Dave Penner - Contestant
Inducted - November 1, 2002
Dave Penner
Dave Penner blazed a trail for Canadian steer wrestlers in 1969 when he became the first Canadian to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in a timed event. He finished ninth in the world, a trip that included the fastest time of the Finals that year, a 8.3 in the fifth go-round.
Born in Coaldale, AB, in 1939, Penner farmed in Scandia, AB, during his competitive years. He got his feet wet at an amateur rodeo in Wood Mountain, SK in 1960, and turned pro in 1964, although 1967 was his first year of full-time competition. A big win in Calgary that year helped him challenge the long-time reign of the Butterfields in this event, and earn his first Canadian championship.
At 6'4" and 215 pounds, the quiet, easygoing Penner was the biggest man in rodeo in his era, with a talent to match. He had a general interest in sports, and a particular interest in rodeo, which he enjoyed for the sense of competition and the independence it offered to its athletes.
1986 brought Penner another championship buckle, and 1969 was the year he won his third consecutive Canadian steer wrestling championship, tying Bud Butterfield for a Canadian record that still stands - the most consecutive titles in his event.
Rambo - Animal
Inducted - November 1, 2002
Rambo
Wayne VoId's bull Rambo lived up to the reputation of his renegade Hollywood namesake in the rodeo arena. A calf of VoId's famous bull Bunny, the black, white-faced Rambo was twice the Canadian bull of the year, in 1986 and 1987.
At 1,300 pounds Rambo was a small bull, but he was quick. Over a five-year career, VoId estimated he had close to 200 trips, and was ridden about 20 of those. He was five-times chosen for the $50,000 Calgary Stampede short round, and five-times chosen for the rank pen at the Canadian Finals. Faced with the best bull riders in the world, Rambo was tamed only four times.
VoId and the entire rodeo community were saddened in 1990 when Rambo's career was cut short at the age of nine due to an apparent spleen injury. While VoId was eager to find another Rambo-type to round out his pen, he wasn't optimistic it would happen anytime soon. "Those kind," he mused, "don't run in bunches."
Greg “Sleepy” Schlosser - Contestant
Inducted - November 1, 2002
Greg Schlosser
Three-Time Canadian bull riding champion Gregory Tom Schlosser qualified for an impressive eight Canadian finals over the years, one of the longest successful careers in an event that traditionally offers only a short time in the limelight.
In 1976, at the age of 16, the tall, lean kid from Nanton known to his friends as “Sleepy” took out his permit, competing in the bull riding, steer wrestling and bareback events. He turned pro in 1980, and took only a year to go right to the top of the ranks, becoming the 1981 Canadian bull riding champion.
Four years later, Greg scored twice as the 1985 Canadian All-Around and Bull Riding Champion. The turning point in his double victory was covering a feared Northcott bull, Superstition, who had not been ridden that year, in the second round of the Canadian Finals. Schlosser was also one of six cowboys in the world, and the only Canadian, ever to ride the infamous bull, Bodacious.
After notching a Calgary Stampede $50,000 bonus win in 1986, Schlosser retired from pro competition in 1988, choosing instead to ranch and get involved in the burgeoning film industry. But in 1991, in a display of sheer willpower and talent, he staged an amazing comeback to win the Canadian Bull Riding Championship one more time, at the age of 31.
Greg resides in the Stavely area, where he ranches and still continues to in the movie business, as a very successful stuntman.