Dora Scarbrough, in her book "Land of Good Water" relates from interviews that Pickett got the bulldogging idea by watching herd dogs. A younger brother relates that Pickett practiced the act that would make him famous in his family's pasture outside Noack in Williamson County. He relates the following account: "Will got to bulldogging down there in the pasture at night. On moonlit nights he would go out there and get on a horse and bulldog.
Hinkle told Scarbrough that Pickett told him he first bulldogged for real when an angry cow tried to gore his horse Chico. Angry that the cow tried to gore his horse, Pickett jumped on the cow and twisted its neck until it went down. The ranch boss saw Chico return riderless and went to check on Pickett.
He found his best cowboy truly on the horns of a dilemma: Pickett had the cow subdued by biting its lip, but if he let go he would certainly be gored. The ranch boss helped Pickett out of his fix, and a new sport was born. Billed as the "Dusky Demon" Pickett exhibited his bulldogging skills at rodeos, fairs and exhibitions worldwide. He first received national attention when he bulldogged a steer at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, which had roughly the same appeal as today's Super Bowl.
For a hundred years now, Pickett has been known as the man who invented steer wrestling, though lip biting is a no-no in the modern arena.. He became known far and wide as the man who invented bulldogging. Not as well known is that Bill Pickett was America's first black cowboy star. He made two movies for the Norman Film Manufacturing Co.
In , the U. Postal Service honored him as part of its Legends of the West series of stamps, but the picture that appeared on the stamp was of Bill Pickett's brother. The original stamp was recalled and the correct picture printed on the stamp. The back printing on the revised stamp corrects his birth as ; the original had him born in Historians to this day aren't sure.
Pickett died on April 2 after being kicked in the head by a horse he was roping. He approached the horse with a bridle, but the horse began pawing at the brim of Pickett's hat.
There was no mention of black cowboys, in the wild west magazines or in any of the western novels. I could not understand why. He attended school until the fifth grade but then left to become a full-time ranch hand and improve his roping and riding abilities.
On December 2, , Pickett married Maggie Turner. The couple eventually had nine children. To support his growing family, he began performing more widely, at bigger events, sometimes with his brothers. In , a newspaper, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, described him as "a man who outdoes the fiercest dog in utter brutality. In , Pickett went to Fort Worth, Texas, to wrestle some steers, make some money, buy a few presents for his wife and children and visit a cousin.
He had no idea that Colonel Zack Miller of the Miller Brothers' Ranch had come to town specifically to see his act. The Ranch was founded by seven men who realized that land in what was known as the "Cherokee Strip" was good for cattle. They leased 60, acres from the Cherokee Tribe and later added , acres leased from the Ponca Tribe. Miller, the founder, had created a ranching empire with over cowboys by the time he died.
When his three sons inherited the ranch most of their cowboys were not allowed to enter rodeos because they were too skilled and would be unfair competition. The Miller brothers decided to hold their own exhibition rodeos with their own cowboys-one of whom would soon be Bill Pickett. Pickett began working for the Ranch, and according to Cletus Johnson, was later described by Colonel Zack Miller as having "guts, bull strength, and the same peculiar sense of timing that makes art out of dancing.
During this time, bulldogging, the sport he had invented, became a major rodeo event. It was modified because most cowboys did not want to take a big mouthful of a steer's lip or nostrils and because humane societies objected to the practice. Pickett often pretended to bite the animal while wrestling it down and was sometimes fined for cruelty to animals because of this convincing pretense.
At a show at Madison Square Garden in New York City, a steer was frightened by the noise of the crowd, stampeded right out of the chute, jumped over the arena fence and thundered up into the stands. The steer climbed up the seats, as people scattered right and left in front of it.
The legendary American humorist, Will Rogers, was Pickett's partner and the hazer for this event. He got the steer to turn around at the third balcony and Pickett rode his horse up into the stands, among the panicked people, and grabbed the steer by the lip. Rogers then roped the steer by the leg and dragged both steer and Pickett back down into the arena.
Some people claimed that Pickett had wrestled a buffalo bull and a bull elk with full horns to the ground. This may have been just publicity, but whether or not it's true, it is certain that none of the animals he threw ever tried to gore him after he got them on the ground. In , Pickett performed in a Mexican bullfighting ring after one of the Miller brothers bet 5, pesos that Pickett could ride a Mexican fighting bull for five minutes.
He stayed on the animal for seven and a half minutes, winning the bet, but his horse was gored and Pickett broke three ribs and was severely gashed. Men from the Ranch ran into the ring and roped the bull.
The Mexican crowd, angered by what they saw as disrespect for their bullfighting tradition, threw bottles and trash at Pickett and the other cowboys until mounted police stopped them. Richard E. Norman used extra footage from shooting this movie to make another film called The Crimson Skull, which also included scenes with Pickett. When the films were released, they were a big hit among African Americans who had heard of, but had never seen, African American cowboys.
In , Pickett retired from performing and lived on a small ranch he bought near Chandler, Oklahoma. When the Ranch ran into financial troubles in , he returned to help. In March , Pickett tripped while roping a stallion and fell under the horse, which kicked him in the head. For the next 11 days he clung to life with a fractured skull. Finally, on April 2, , he died in a hospital in Ponca City, Oklahoma.
Pickett's funeral was one of the largest ever held in Oklahoma. He was buried high on a hill at White Eagle Monument, where the Cherokee Strip Cowboy Association set up a limestone marker in his memory.
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