2023 Farm-City Pro Rodeo — Farm-City Pro Rodeo founders inducted into halls of fame

Published 5:00 am Thursday, August 3, 2023

David Bothum turned 69 years old June 28. The following day, he received a one-of-a-kind birthday present when he was inducted into the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame.

“I am very honored for this, but that one is a pretty special deal,” Bothum said.

Bothum placed at St. Paul numerous times as a saddle bronc rider. In 1983, he placed second to his uncle, Jim Bothum.

“I never did win the rodeo,” Bothum said. “I won the wild horse race one year.”

The induction was the first of two hall of fame ceremonies he attended this summer. His good friend Butch Knowles was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame on July 15.

“That’s pretty humbling, holy cow,” said Knowles in a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association release. “This is the last thing that I ever thought would happen. It is quite an honor, it’s probably not the place that I feel like I should be. But it’s an honor to be thought of that way, it really is.”

The two local cowboys back in 1988 founded the Farm-City Pro Rodeo, which ranks among the top 25 professional rodeos in North America based on total prize money.

David Bothum

Bothum grew up in Silverton and had a handful of uncles who competed in rodeo. He wanted to be just like them.

“There were 11 kids in my dad’s family,” Bothum said. “Uncle Tony was the one who really helped me start to ride. Uncle Shirley started all of them — Rex, Marvin, Jim — there were a lot of them that did it (rodeo). They helped me along, as did other people I met when I was young.”

Jim and Marvin Bothum still are alive. Jim, who was inducted into the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2006, was the last cowboy to ride the legendary War Paint. He rode him for 6 seconds, then stepped off so the great paint could go out a winner.

It didn’t take long for David Bothum to catch on to riding broncs.

He placed second at the Oregon High School Rodeo Association state championships in 1972. It was there that he met Knowles. The two would forge a friendship that continues today.

Bothum, who was competing in the amateur Northwest Rodeo Association at the time, broke into the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1973. He was just 18.

During his career, he finished in the top 15 of the world standings nine times, earning nine trips to the National Finals Rodeo. In 1982, he finished seventh in the world standings with winnings of nearly $30,000 — which is pennies compared to the prize money today.

He also won the Pendleton Round-Up saddle bronc title during its 75th anniversary year in 1985.

In 1987, with a young family, Bothum quit rodeoing for a living. He would still compete here and there, but gone were the 100 rodeos a year.

Like his father, he started a construction company and built homes and other structures. He retired last fall.

“Now, I just do whatever,” he said.

That “whatever” includes running the Farm-City Pro Rodeo.

Bothum, and his wife Cyd, have two children, Ryan and Mykael, and five grandchildren.

Butch Knowles

Knowles was born in Klamath Falls, and his family moved to the Redmond area when he was in the second grade. He began his rodeo career in the seventh grade and has never looked back.

“They had a junior rodeo in Redmond and me and my brother went,” he said. “I rode calves. I made it about two jumps, but that’s all it took. It grabbed me.”

Knowles, a 1973 graduate of Redmond High School, won the high school all-around title in 1973, went on to rodeo at Walla Walla Community College and got his PRCA card in 1974.

A saddle bronc rider as well, Knowles qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 1981, 1983 and 1986-87. He won the National Finals Rodeo average in 1987. Knowles’ titles include in Pendleton (1986, 1991), St. Paul, Calgary, and his first PRCA victory in Salinas, California, in 1974.

There was a time in his career when he would get on the back of a bull. He is one of the few to say he got a qualified ride on the notorious Oscar II. A ride that scored a 92 in Longview, Washington, many years ago.

Knowles is no stranger when it comes to hall of fames. He was inducted in the Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon Hall of Fame in 2021, and the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2019.

The past three decades, Knowles has made a name for himself as a TV commentator, including being the color analyst for the NFR every year since 1988.

Knowles and his wife Mary lived for a time in Hermiston before moving to Heppner full time in 1988, where they raised their sons, Brian and Blake, who is a PRCA steer wrestler.

Putting together Farm-City Pro Rodeo

In 1987, Knowles and Bothum made the initial pitch to Umatilla County Fair Manager Janet Aiken to bring a pro rodeo to the fair.

“We are really proud of that,” Knowles said. “David and I were going down the road one night, figuring out what we would need.”

After some reluctance, the fair board agreed to the rodeo at the fairgrounds, but did not want to have any ties to it in case it didn’t work out.

In 1988, the Farm-City Pro Rodeo was born, and it has grown bigger and better over the past three decades. The best of the best have competed in Hermiston, thanks in part to two cowboys who had a dream.

“The first night, it was about 6:30 and there was no one in the stands,” Knowles said. “After the bareback, we looked around and the stands were full. Everything that has come since then, David has built. It’s amazing.”

“The first night, it was about 6:30 and there was no one in the stands. After the bareback, we looked around and the stands were full. Everything that has come since then, David has built. It’s amazing.”

— Butch Knowles, co-founder of Farm-City Pro Rodeo