PUEBLO, Colo. – When stock contractor Sammy Andrews got the call from Phil Sumner, he knew something good was going to be in store.

“Phil bucked a lot of bulls for me at that time, and still does,” Andrews said. “And he said that he’s got a bull that was ready for some primetime.”

Andrews began hauling the little slap-sided calf to rodeos, and took him to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, for his second career out. It was there that he faced off against rodeo legend and current PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert.

“He jerked Cody down and gave him a shaving scar,” Andrews said. “So that was kind of the start of his rodeo history.”

That bull went by the name Bodacious, and what a history it turned out to be.

The inaugural PBR World Champion Bull (1995) and two-time PRCA champion (1994-1995) is one of only two bulls ever to win titles in both the PBR and PRCA. Bodacious was considered one of the greatest of his era, and one of the world’s most dangerous bulls, and he is now receiving one more great honor.

Bodacious, who passed away in 2000, will receive the Brand of Honor, one of the most prestigious awards for a bovine athlete in bull riding, at the PBR Heroes & Legends Celebration on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas.

“It means a lot to have Bodacious receive the Brand of Honor,” Andrews said in a video interview that will air at the Heroes & Legends Celebration. “He’s in the PRCA Hall of Fame, the Texas Hall of Fame, and it’s great to see him be going into the PBR (Ring of Honor) because that’s the elite of the bull riding.”

It didn’t get much more elite than Bodacious, who had 135 outs and was only ridden eight times. During his four-year career, Lambert was far from the only bull rider he bloodied, earning a reputation as one of the most feared bulls in history.

For Andrews, it only took that one buckoff to give him an inkling that he might have quite a talent on his hands.

“Bo kind of started being special to me when he jerked Cody down,” Andrews said. “I just thought, ‘Well, Cody’s a pretty, dang good bull rider for a young calf to be able to do this.’”

As time passed, Bodacious began to put on weight and muscle, growing from the small calf to what Andrews likened to a muscled prizefighter.

That 1,750 pounds of muscle contributed to the strength and ability that made him nearly unrideable.

“He jumped high right out of the chute, and got so much altitude and had so much drop,” Andrews said. “You’re standing 4-feet up on the flank board, and there’s many a time I could see his belly when he left there. That’s how high that bull could get. And there’s not many bulls to this day that I know of that got that high. And he had so much ability out there. Just the force that he had made it tough for a guy to ride.”

At the 1995 PBR World Finals, Bodacious famously sent defending PBR World Champion Tuff Hedeman to the hospital after breaking nearly every major bone in Hedeman’s face.

Andrews said that Bodacious was so dangerous because he would get so high in the air that, by the time a rider was finishing his descent, Bodacious was already on the way back up.

“If they weren’t going to the right or left, why, he’d throw them over his shoulder,” Andrews said. “In Tuff’s case, he met him head on.”

Hedeman’s injury was all but the last straw for Bodacious’s career as the injury risk was finally getting to be too great. His final out was at the National Finals Rodeo in 1995, when Scott Breding drew him and wore a catcher’s mask to protect himself. That move proved to be a smart one, as Breding wrecked and bent the mask out of shape.

“When he jerked Tuff down it was kind of like the shot heard ‘round the world,” Andrews said. “That’s one reason we wanted to retire him, because we didn’t want anybody getting killed on him.”

By that time, Bodacious’s knack for performing in the spotlight had made him a huge star. Bodacious’ star power played a role in drawing attention to the fledgling league which was only in its second year at the time of Bodacious’ world title.

“I think Bo helped create the popularity of the PBR, because he was kind of the headliner bull there in ’95 when the PBR started,” Andrews said. “That the first bull to win the Bull of the Year in the PBR. I think he helped open some doors for the PBR.”

It also turned Bodacious into a celebrity in his own right. In retirement, he toured the country in a personalized trailer to attend openings of casinos, restaurants and car dealerships, and had a whole variety of t-shirts and caps. His mere presence in the town of Addielou, Texas, drew buses full of fans looking to come see him.

Bodacious passed away from a heart attack in 2000, but his legacy lives on not just in the scars he left on cowboys and his offspring that still buck today, but in the respect that bull riding fans still have for him.

“It’s been mind-boggling to me that people still come up to you after he’s been gone for 20 years and retired for 25, and still talk about the bull,” Andrews said. “The kids watch the videos of him and still want pictures of him. It’s just nice to know that a bull has managed to have that much notoriety that people still care about him.”

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media