frlday, april 7, 1978
daily nebraskan
page 5
Rodeo's wild and wcoly tradition
part of cowboys' everyday skills
By John Ortmann
Rodeo in Nebraska goes back a long way. Although
Prescott, Ariz, claims the first organized rodeo, some
historians say North Platte hosted the first one in 1882.
The city fathers wanted an event to mark Indepen
dence Day and hired Buffalo Bill Cody to produce it for
them. The resulting Fourth of July blowout attracted
more than 1,000 cowboys eager to demonstrate their
work-day skills and allowed Cody to launch a new career
as a wild-west show promoter.
Animal science professor R. B. Warran, University of
Nebraska Rodeo Association advisor, said early rodeos
featured mainly bucking and roping events. These events
pitted man against animal and grew out of cowboy's daily
activities.
Riding skills, developed during the breaking of wild
horses for work, were displayed in saddle and bareback
bronc riding events, Warren said. Bull riding, although not
an essential cowboy skill, was developed later as an
additional test of riding ability.
The various roping events, including calf roping and
one- and two-man steer roping, grew out of the skills
required to "doctor" or otherwise handle cattle on the
open range where the corrals and chutes used today were
not available.
Warren said steer wrestling, formerly called bulldog
ing, has the most romantic history of all rodeo events. It
was developed in the 1890s by black cowboy Bill Pickett,
who used his arms to turn the steer's head back and then
sank his teeth into the animal's upper limb to complete
the throw.
Today teeth are not allowed; the cowboy launches,
himself from the back of a running horse onto the long,
sharp horns of a running steer. While the left hand grasps
the steer's muzzle between the eyes and the nostrils, the
right hand grips the tip of the right horn and uses this
natural lever to twist the steer to the ground. All four
legs must point in the same direction for the cowboy to
receive a time.
Professional cowboys began to organize in the 1930s,
when they formed the Cowboy Turtle Association, so
named because the turtle is slow but sure, Warren said.
The Turtles, a sort of labor union, was formed to protect
cowboys from shady promoters who staged rodeos in
Eastern cities and then disappeared without distributing
prize money.
In 1945 the Rodeo Cowboys' Association, now known
as the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, was
formed. More organized than the CTA, the association
sets rules and standards for rodeos and events, including
rules against the mistreatment of animals.
College rodeo in Nebraska had its beginning in 1947
when UNL cowboys began to compete against each other,
Warren said. In the early 1960s the competition grew to
include other Nebraska colleges and in 1967 the UNRA
joined the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.
This year's UNL rodeo, April 7 through 9 at the State
Fairgrounds Coliseum, is expected to draw 300 contest
ants from the eight-state NIRA Great Plains Region.
The four performances will be called by North Platte
resident Hadley Barrett, formerly an announcer at the
PRCA National Finals Rodeo held every year in Okla
homa City.
The rodeo clown will be Gordon bullfighter Miles Hare,
who was chosen to clown the 1977 National Finals and is
now one of the top-ranked clowns in the country.
More pediatrician cooperation necessary
for aphasia detection, treatment speake,
By Pat Gentzler
Aphasia, the inability to communicate through speak
ing and writing, would be detected earlier and treated
sooner if pediatricians would cooperate, said John
Eisensen, a speech and communication authority.
Eisensen, a researcher from San Francisco State Univer
sity spoke to a group of Scottish Rite Masons and report
ers Thursday at the Nebraska Center for Continuing Edu
cation. The UNL Barldey Memorial Center on East Campus,
which specializes in speech problems, is financed by the
Scottish Rite Masons.
Although aphasia usually is found in children, it also
can occur in adults, often after a stroke, he explained.
Some children, he said, who are not deaf, retarded,
brain damaged, or emotionally disturbed just never
develop speech on their own. Eisensen said this aphasia is
a form of brain damage. He refers to these children as
"brain different".
In one-third of the aphasia cases, there is evidence of
brain damage in the left hemisphere of the brain, where
communication takes place. But, Eisensen said, his theory
is that all of the cases are caused by some sort of neuro
logical disorder.
Psychologists are easier to convince of this than neuro
logists are, he said. "And that's their problem."
Treatment and diagnosis is based on "What do normal
children do?" Eisensen said.
If a child is slow to begin communicating, it could be
for a number of reasons, he said.
Parents should check motor milestones, such as rolling
over and sitting up to check for retardation.
"Without question they (aphasic children) can learn to
speak . . . otherwise we wouldn't all be here," Eisensen
said.
Hie percentage of children afflicted with aphasia is
from 1 to 3 percent, he said. Many of these cases are mis
diagnosed, he added.
Therapy should begin before the age of 3, he said.
Eisensen also discussed reading problems among child
ren. He said ten to 20 percent of the school-age children
have reading problems.
Fourth grade students reading on the first grade level
usually, "don't understand language as well as you think,"
he said. "They can read it aloud, but they don't under
stand." Eisensen reported the findings of a recent survey he
conducted, whicfi stated that despite the changes in edu
cation methods over the past 50 years, the percentage of
children with reading problems has stayed the same.
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