MAGAZINE FEATURES JOE CAVANAUGH . . .
Bull Riding Announcer
Editor’s note: The following
article concerning Holt coun
ty’s own Joe Cavanaugh, who
was reared in the Chambers
community, was featured in
the nationally distributed mag
azine, The Western Horseman,
June, 1956, issue:
By JERRY ARMSTRONG
It has been said that a rodeo
announcer can make or break a
rodeo — this statement, fortun
ately, is not true; if it were, an
imposing number of rodeos
would have been “broken” a long
time ago. It is a fact that really
good rodeo announcers are, and
always have been, too few. This
fact is especially apparent today.
One does not appreciate the real
ly good ones until you have
heard some of the mumbling
bad ones. The outnumbered good
announcers are scattered around
the country and many of them
are not as well-known as they
ghnn 1H hp
Now out in Chambers, there
lives an ex-bull rider who in the
past 10 years has developed into
a very good rodeo announcer.
This boy’s name is Joe Cava
naugh and he is a popular an
nouncer in the midwest rodeo
scene — in the near future he
should become very well-known
all over the country. He is that
good at the mike, and this boy
really knows the rodeo. Short
ly after the conscientious Joe
Cavanaugh had started announc
ing, and while he was still no
slouch on the bulls, he got the
notion that a good authentic cow
boy announcer should at one
time or another have worked all
five major events. He got this
notion on the eve of a Paul Long
rodeo in Kansas, and promptly
entered the saddle bronc riding
and the ’dogging, along with his
number one event, bull riding.
Joe (who had started in rodeo
as a bareback bronc rider) later
said that if he had had a horse
he would have entered the rop
ing, too. He probably would have,
too; he’s that kind of a cowboy.
We first observed Jerry Cav
anaugh in action, at the mike and
on the bulls, one warmish after
noon several years back. Before
the start of the rodeo, a group of
contestants were squatting in
front of the chutes talking of this
and that and we sat down with
them. Two of these cowboys were
ihe writer’s current traveling
companions. We had started out
together that spring with a bus
iness arrangement of sorts—the
writer supplying the transporta
tion and paying the entry fees in
return for a cut of all winings.
Cavanaugh, nation’s number
2 rodeo announcer , . . return
ing to announce at the Holt
county fair. — The Frontier
1‘hoto.
But, all had not gone well from
the start, and now in effect was
a turnabout business deal— our
two buddies bought the gas, our
typewriter ribbons, paper, enve
lopes and stamps, and we split
the checks for all writings that
were sold.
As the roedo was about to start,
one of the cowboys in the group
arose, put his bull-rope under the
fence, and climbed up into the
announcer’s stand. There he bus
ily started fussing with papers
and testing the mike for sound.
“Does that bull rider know what
he’s doing up there?” we asked
one of our buddies. “Sure, he
does,” was the retort, “that’s Joe
Cavanaugh, the announcer."
Later, Joe climbed down out of
the crow’s nest announcing stand
to take out a bull. It turned out
to be a dilly of a ride on a rank
spinning bull—and it had been
a good, capable and unusually
entertaining announcing job. We
were muchly impressed and de
termined to some day write about
this talented cowboy from Ne
braska’s sandhill country. This is
that someday, for it took much
doing to get the Joe Cavanaugh
story.
Joe, who is 33 - years - old
though he appears much young
er) was born in O’Neill. He was
always around and up on horses, j
.ind his first job was wrangling j
horses for 50 cents a day on the!
Quarter Circle S ranch out of O'- j
Neill. He entered his first rodeo;
at Chambers in 1938. Here he
was in a bareback bronc riding
event, and he placed second in
the first go-round. This was in
the period when bareback horses
were being ridden the hard way,
with a loose rope. Young Cava
naugh had the rodeo bug, and a
braided loose rope; so, in the
ensuing years, he came out
aboard a lot of bareback horses.]
Hut, this was in the depression1
era and Joe had 11 brothers and
sisters—and he wasn’t getting to
the pay window often enough to |
contribute m u c h wampum at
home. So, the young bareback
bronc rider put- away his big hat,
his boots, and the worn loose j
rope, and went to a CCC camp j
for two years.
World War II started shortly
after he arrived home from
camp, and Joe joined up. He
served with the air transport
command in China, Burma and
India. He was a sergeant when
he received his discharge early
in 1946 Even after all those long
years, Joe still had the rodeo bug
—and bad. He went to work on
the chutes and handling stock
and doing this and that for mid
west stock contractor-producer
Walter Plugge, and was also back
in the arena riding bulls and
‘•buffalo” (catalo—buffalo-Here
!•_1 _V
»v;i u V.1 Woo ) .
At the 1946 Wymore rodeo, the
regular announcer, Eddie Boysen,
also an all-around cowboy, was
injured. An announcer was need
ed in a hurry—and young Cav
anaugh, who had quite a gift for
gab, and enough courage to
tackle anything that came along,
was available. So, Joe took over
the mike and all went well—the
spectators and the cowboys both
liked his manner at the mike, his
clear voice, and his special brand
of authentic cowboy chatter. The
injured announcer, Eddie Boysen,
and Jack King, a well-known and
highly - rated horse - show an
nouncer, both encouraged Cava
naugh to continue announcing.
So, Joe decided that this was for
him, and he set about learning all
that he could about the workings
and the foibles of the announcing
craft.
Joe was always available from
then on, and he announced rodeos
and matches whenever and
wherever he could, and, mean
while, he was still riding bulls—
and riding good, too. That year
(1946) Walter Plugge had a lot
of bull in an old meanie known
as Blue Boy. Only two cowboys
managed to chalk up rides on
Blue Boy’s rough old back. One
of these riders was Charlie Col
bert, the other was Joe Cava
naugh. In 1950, stock contractor
producer Paul Long had a fast
spinning bull in the string that
was called 8-Ball. This one was
giving all of the bull riders a bad
time, but two boys did manage
tn mnko mnnpv rides on old 8
Ball that season. Clayton Hill
rode him at the South Sioux City
rodeo and Joe Cavanaugh won
the bull riding at Nelson aboard
the violent 8-Ball. In talking of
bulls, Joe avers that among the
best bulls that he’s been aboard
are George Stichka’s Joe Louis
and Number 273; Paul Long’s
Railroad and Walter Plugge’s old
Number 18.
In 1954, at the Broken Bow
Elks club rodeo, Stichka’s Buck
shot bull stepped on Joe, break
ing three ribs loose from the
backbone. But, the taped-up bull
riding announcer was back at the
mike to announce the following
performance. In 1952 Joe was
riding bulls and announcing at
the Lawrence stadium rodeo in
Wichita, Kans. It was here that
he drew the good Stichka bull,
Joe Louis. Bob Erickson was up
on the chute, assisting Joe on and
out. As Bob was pulling his rope
for him, Joe looked up and said:
“Bob, if I ride this bull, I'm go
ing to Omaha.”
Joe did ride the bull and did
go to Omaha’s Ak-Sar-Ben rodeo.
Here he had three go-round bulls,
and, although all of them were
good, each one, seemingly, was a
little better and a bit rougher
than the one before. The third
and final bull was Leo Cremer’s
notorious Number 77. The tricky
Number 77 came out fast and
then, in a tight circle, spun right
back into the open chute. When
(Continued on page 20.)
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