In his welcoming comments The "Dean" aka President of the Pendleton Round-Up Dennis Hunt, stated none of our professors have teaching certificates but they all had a B.S. in Round-Up! The crowd laughed and the tone of the evening was set. He then introduced the "Professor" for this first class, Director Tim Hawkins.
Tim shared his obvious love for the history of this 100 year old institution with the eager crowd of 200. He started back pre Round-Up in 1909 with what was called “The District Fair”, that was the inspiration for the event that is now preparing for its 101 year. He shared highlights of history including a video clip of the famous story of Jackson Sundown, George Fletcher and John Spain. He shared stories of the cowgirls of the Pendleton Round-Up including the story of Bonnie McCarroll who died 11 days after suffering an injury competing at the Pendleton Round-Up and changed women’s roles in rodeo still to this day.
As great as Tim was, the highlight of the evening was stolen by the first hand stories of his father Don Hawkins who was a Round-Up Director in the 1970’s. He told three lively and funny stories about the infamous Let’er Buck room! They say you should only believe about a 10th of what you hear about the goings on in the Let’er Buck room but Mr. Hawkins swore he was there to witness each of the three stories he shared.
Tim shared a few interesting facts about the history of the Let’er Buck room also including the following:
It is the longest bar in the State of Oregon
1,000 people are inside it at any one time on Friday & Saturday or Round-Up
95% of attendees claim to have visited the Let’er Buck room
5% of the people in the Let’er Buck room have never seen the Round-up itself and 1% doesn’t know there is a rodeo going on!
The Let’er Buck room is 20 degrees hotter than anywhere else in the arena and Tim thought probably than anywhere in Oregon!
If this first class is any example of how the eight weeks will go we better follow what the East Oregonian wrote after the first show in 1910, just grit your teeth, get another hold & Let’er Buck!
