LAS VEGAS – John Growney could remember pulling up to a rodeo with Joe Baumgartner and he seeing the impact the bullfighter had on others.
Growney could simply look into a young bull rider’s eyes and see a change of heart.
“When we were at a rodeo, or anywhere, when you saw a young bull rider getting ready and they saw Joe Baumgartner was there, it was almost like there was a relief in their eyes that they knew they had the best savior there to save them,” Growney said. “Beside the Lord, they knew that they needed Joe Baumgartner.”
There was no doubt how much bull riders respected Baumgartner.
The Red Bluff, California, bullfighter spent 23 years fighting bulls. He was voted to 18 consecutive PBR World Finals and made 14 appearances at the National Finals Rodeo. He fought tens of thousands of bulls – he’s estimated to have fought 6,000 bulls in Las Vegas alone – and he won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Bullfighter of the Year Award from 2004-2007.
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Baumgartner was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2013, and on Tuesday he received the PBR’s Jim Shoulder’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
However, it was Baumgartner tipping his hat to someone else on Tuesday night during the Heroes & Legends Celebration at the South Point Hotel Casino & Spa.
“There is one guy in this world that I have to thank, and that is Ted Groene,” Baumgartner said. “Most of you guys think of Ted as a guru of the stock. Being able to set pens and do what he does, but this guy was one of the greatest bullfighters that ever tied his cleats on.”
Groene fought bulls from 1979 to 1994. His bullfighting career ended as the PBR was just beginning after he was hooked by a bull in the face, rupturing his right eye and crushing the eye socket.
He has since become a livestock supervisor for the PBR at 25th PBR: Unleash The Beast of events.
Baumgartner was 15 years old when he showed up around Groene looking for advice on how to become a successful bullfighter.
Ted said, ‘Joe if this is what you want to do, I will put you in those shoes,’” Baumgartner said. “I said, ‘Man that would be excellent.’ In about three or four years, Ted kind of turned me loose on my own and introduced me to a lot of people. He put me in some great situations in my life.”
Baumgartner eventually caught the attention of some PBR co-founders, including Cody Lambert, when he was working a Bull Riders Only event.
Unfortunately, it took him taking quite the shot by a bull called Wilford to gain some attention as a young up-and-comer.
“I was a no-name kid there, and they needed someone to fight bulls,” Baumgartner said. “I was a new kid on the block. Nobody cared who I was. A guy named Cody Snyder got on him, and he threw Cody off. And this bull did hook the crap out of me. Cody Lambert and a couple of the other guys came out there and they recognized me.
“It is kind of bad that you have to get recognized by getting hooked the shit out of. That was a stepping-stone.”
The stepping-stone became a long, fruitful and legendary career.
A career with so many accolades added one more on Tuesday evening, and it is one that Baumgartner is forever grateful for.
“There is Ty Murray. There is Trevor Brazile. There is some great cowboys out there, but ain’t nobody Jim Shoulders, and I got me a trophy that says Jim Shoulders’ name on it,” Baumgartner concluded. “I will pride that for the rest of my life.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko