PUEBLO, Colo. – Larry Mahan, eight-time World Champion and PBR Ring of Honor member, passed away on May 7 at 79.
One of the biggest superstars in rodeo history, Mahan was connected to Western sports since he was a young boy growing up in Oregon. His first love as a kid was horses, and when he got his first horse at 8 years old, he was hooked for life.
He competed in his first rodeo in 1957 and won the calf riding – and six dollars and a belt buckle – and immediately decided he was a bull rider.
By 1965, he was a World Champion.
Mahan won his bull riding titles in ’65 and ’67, and all-around titles in 1966-70 and again in ’73.
Suddenly, the shy kid from Oregon was thrust into the mainstream spotlight as the sport of rodeo began to gain national attention.
“In my opinion, the three riding events fall into the category of extreme sport,” Mahan told PBR.com in 2019. “And that seemed to create a lot of interest in the sports media world, and all of a sudden, I was being interviewed on the right and the left and underneath and on top. So I had to step up to the plate. But at the same time, I was realizing that rodeo was definitely growing then, and I think by me stepping on the scene and working those three events, it did create a lot of interest from the world.”
It wasn’t enough for Mahan to excel at three events within the rodeo.
In 1965, he became a pilot and even shuttled several of his fellow competitors with him from rodeo to rodeo.
“How do you go from one (rodeo) event to the other? Well, you change frequencies,” Mahan said. “When I started flying, that really helped me to understand that, because when I left the rodeo grounds, win, lose or draw, I’d better change frequencies and forget about being a rodeo cowboy and think about being a pilot.”
It was a skill that proved useful when he got into commentary on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports,” spending time in the booth with the likes of Curt Gowdy and Jim McKay. Mahan himself was still competing, and sometimes his two jobs would nearly overlap.
“There were times where I’d get off a bareback horse or a bull and run over to the booth, a couple of times still breathing hard, and jump into it,” he said. “’ What was it like, Mahan?’ ‘Well, blah blah blah, and here we are,’ and change frequencies and start talking about everything else the guys were doing. That was a real exciting time, to be able to step into that and basically see if I could pull it off.”
Mahan has been able to pull off almost everything. He put out his country music album in the ’70s, hosted a television show called “Horse World” in the ’90s, and Larry Mahan-branded cowboy boots, hats and Western wear are all available in stores today.
Mahan was inducted in the inaugural class of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979 and inducted into the PBR Ring of Honor in 1998.
In 2019, he received the PBR’s Ty Murray Top Hand Award, named after the nine-time World Champion.
“I think he meant a lot to the sport of rodeo, and he meant a lot to me,” Murray told the PRCA. “He was my hero. He was my Superman when I was a little boy. I did a paper when I was in fifth grade; they said if you could wish anything for the world, what would it be? I misunderstood the question. I thought it meant if there is anything you could do in the world, what would it be? I said I wanted to break Larry Mahan’s records. I still have that assignment today with me.”
Murray spent two hours with Mahan on May 5, just two days before he passed away.
“He couldn’t really move, and I just sat with him, and just spent some time with him,” Murray said. “I would hold on to his hand, and he would squeeze my hand. He knew I was there. It’s a tough deal because he has been a really important part of my life. He was my hero. He set records that I wanted to make as benchmarks for myself to try and see what I could accomplish. He took me under his wing. He showed me the world is a lot bigger than just the rodeo arena.”
Photos courtesy of Bull Stock Media
