100 Years Ago

Sept. 16, 1921

“Where did you get those clothes?” When an 18-year-old youth, who says he is Charlie Clifford, told John Hamley this morning that he had “bought them from a fellow,” John disagreed with him and escorted the young man to the police station, because the clothes that Clifford was wearing were stolen from the Hamley residence a few days since. Clifford is said to have confessed to the whole thing, and a search made by the police of his rooms disclosed nearly all of the things that John Hamley was missing. Clifford was wearing Hamley’s hat, and it was this that caused his undoing because Starling Livermore, who is employed at Hamley’s, saw the stranger in the post office this morning and he recognized the headgear. He telephoned Hamley to get on the youth’s trail. Clifford’s arrest followed shortly afterward.

50 Years Ago

Sept. 16, 1971

The former Mabel Strickland, now Mrs. Sam Woodward of Buckeye, Ariz., “is undoubtedly the greatest cowgirl there ever was,” said E. N. “Pink” Boylen of Pendleton, who was a Round-Up official when Mrs. Woodward was queen of the Pendleton show in 1927, one of the years in which she also performed at the Round-Up. The first woman elected to the Pendleton Round-Up Hall of Fame, Mrs. Woodward is called by some the greatest flat race and relay race rider ever. She credits Allen Drumheller, another elected this year to the Hall of Fame. “He taught me everything I knew about race horses.” She was 13 when she made her first trick riding appearance. “My folks didn’t think very much of my performing,” she remembers. “In those days, they thought just bad people took part in rodeos.”

25 Years Ago

Sept. 16, 1996

A crowd never cheers louder than when a hometown star wins. That’s what it was like Saturday at the finals of the 1996 Pendleton Round-Up when Pendleton’s Tom Sorey won the steer roping title. “It’s something everybody dreams about and I’ve been hearing about it all my life,” Sorey said after his 17.5-second run for a 45.5 average to win the title. “My uncle, Joe Bergevin, won it in ‘59 and our family’s kinda had this thing about the Round-Up ever since.” Sorey was also the recipient of the Mike Currin Memorial Award for the high point Columbia River Circuit timed-event cowboy at the Round-Up. He was joined on his victory lap by his 2-year-old son, Pake.