Get ready to pull on your cowboy boots and eat plenty of free barbecue: the annual spring college rodeo is coming to the Ned R. McWherter Agricultural Pavilion, April 10-12. One of the longest-standing annual college rodeos in the nation, the UT Martin Spring College Rodeo celebrates 40 consecutive rodeos in 2008.
“It’s a pretty big deal to have a nationally-ranked rodeo forty consecutive years, as a college,” says UT Martin head rodeo coach, John Luthi.
The 40th rodeo will feature a community-wide barbecue, scholarship auction, prize drawings and, of course, UT Martin’s rodeo team competing in nine events including bull riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing and several roping contests.
Luthi, now in his 11th year as head rodeo coach, led his team to a 15th-place finish last year at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyo. Three members of the UT Martin rodeo team—Adrienne Vought, Boyd Quinley and Ty Atchison—finished among the top-10 in the nation.
At the halfway point of the 2007-08 season, the men’s team ranks second in the Ozark Region with two first-place finishes, two second-place finishes and one third-place finish in five rodeos this fall. Team newcomer, Matt Smith, a junior transfer from Mt. Olive, Miss., has won the bareback riding event in all five rodeos. Senior Ty Atchison is also undefeated in his five saddle bronc events this season. Brent Menz, a junior, has won the bull riding contest in three out of five tries this fall.
The women are currently in fifth place in the region.
The UT Martin rodeo team hopes to attract a lot of alumni and a big crowd to the 40th Annual Spring College Rodeo. Just don’t tell the fire marshal. “Last year on Saturday night,” says Luthi with a laugh, “If the fire marshal had seen the crowd, I think we might have been in trouble.”
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