C&I pays tribute to Larry Mahan, one of rodeo’s finest.
“Football had Joe Namath, boxing had Muhammad Ali, and rodeo had Larry Mahan,” Bobby Steiner, the 1973 world champion bull rider who competed against Mahan from 1968 to 1973, told The New York Times. “I don’t know that anybody will ever know what ‘it’ is, but he had ‘it.’”
“It” was six all-around rodeo world championships, including five consecutive from 1966 to 1970, and bull-riding world titles in 1965 and 1967. Ty Murray, whom Mahan mentored, broke Mahan’s record with a seventh all-around title in 1998. “I told Ty if I’d known he was gonna win seven,” Mahan joked years ago, “I would’ve won eight.”
“It” was more than brief careers fronting a band (“I was awful,” he said.) and appearing in films (“I’m still waiting on that Academy Award nomination.”). “It” was more than putting his brand on successful lines of cowboy boots, apparel, and hats.
Arguably the greatest rodeo cowboy ever, Mahan, who was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2021, died May 7, 2023, at his home in Valley View, Texas. He was 79. His wife, Julanne Reed Mahan, died less than five months earlier after a brief illness.
“Larry had an aura about him and a following,” legendary rodeo announcer Bob Tallman told ProRodeo Sports News. “People moved to him like a magnet. ... He was a little bit of Jim Shoulders, he was a little bit of Casey Tibbs, and he was all Larry Mahan.”
Born in Salem, Oregon, Mahan grew up in nearby Brooks before his family moved to Redmond, Oregon, a rodeo town. He won $6 calf-riding at a youth rodeo in 1957, moved up to riding bareback and saddle broncs at age 15, and had a Rodeo Cowboys Association (now Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) permit in 1960. Four years later, he was competing for the saddle bronc riding world championship. Two years after that, he was an all-around champion, competing in saddle bronc, bareback bronc, and bull riding.
Mahan’s appearances on The Tonight Show and the cover of Sports Illustrated not only heightened his celebrity, they made rodeo hip. He flew his own plane to make more events. With his winning smile, quick wit, and hair touching his collar, he brought new audiences to the sport. A 1973 documentary, The Great American Cowboy, which captured the rodeo rivalry between Mahan and Phil Lyne, won an Academy Award. Mahan called Lyne the better cowboy, pointing out that Lyne rode roughstock and competed in steer wrestling and roping events. Even after retiring in 1977, Mahan championed those who challenged his records.
“I’ve heard so many stories about him through the years,” says Teton Ridge Sports president Joe Loverro, who produced The Cowboy, a documentary focusing on Mahan. “Great stories about how Larry has motivated, how he has inspired, how he has counseled so many cowboywes in so many different ways, whether it’s as an athlete, as a competitor and how to prepare, how to take care of your body, how to travel down the road, how to take care of your money, how to be a better man, a better cowboy in every which way.”
Though Mahan escaped serious rodeo injuries, he endured heartbreaks. Three marriages ended in divorce. His son, Ty, died of a heart attack at age 53 in 2000. But publicly, his smile and enthusiasm never dimmed.
“I loved the challenge of riding,” he said. “I loved making and then meeting the schedules. I think that it was more fun then, because in the ’60s and ’70s it was a friendlier world to travel in.”
Mahan is survived by two daughters, Lisa Renee Mahan and Alli Eliza Mahan; three sisters, Susan Stockton-Simpson, Jody Thompson, and Dana Mahan Hermreck; and the countless fans who continue to grieve his loss.
This article appears in our February/March 2024 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Larry and Julanne Mahan.