Today I went through my huge stash of photos to try to find one particular photo for my book that I never found, but what I did find was this photo of me. I was living and teaching in Cheyenne, Wyoming and my friends and I had gone for a drive in the country  and decided to do a photo shoot. My friend Julie took this photo of me which I had totally forgotten and in the same file was this program from Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, “The Daddy of Them All.”

It looks like it has seen some hard times, including having a bit of rodeo barbecue smeared on it, but if you look a bit closer at the third photo, you’ll see an interesting fact that I had also forgotten.  The name of the bull ridden by Smokey Merritt in the World’s Championship Brahma Bull Riding  Contest was none other than Ju Dykstra!  Was it a coincidence? Nope. Because the honor of having a bull named after one was limited to prominent men, two members of the committee had submitted my name as “Ju Dykstra.”  First I knew of it was when it was announced during rodeo event # 4 as, “Next out of the chute is Smokey Merritt on Ju Dykstra!!!”

To my knowledge, I am the only woman ever to have a Brahma bull named after her in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, but it may be that they’ve changed their policy and there have been many. Suffice it to say that I was the first!  Try as I might, however, I cannot discover which  won out in that match—Smokey or my namesake.

What were you doing in 1976? If you have a funny story, please share it and link it to this post.