By Lynn Lingbeck

Special to The Collegian

After being at Fresno State for 68 years, Fresno State Student Involvement confirmed that the Fresno State Rodeo Team is the oldest club sport on campus.

Dr. Art Parham, the Fresno State Rodeo Team’s coach and adviser, said the team was established in 1946. ­It became an official club in 1949, the same year the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) was officially established, Parham said.

NIRA first established college rodeo. The College Rodeo website said NIRA was founded on Nov. 6, 1948 in Alpine, Texas.

The first NIRA national convention was held on in Denver, Colo. from April 14-15, 1949. At the convention the organization’s constitution was approved, fees were accepted and rules and regulations were finalized. Three regions were formed at first: the Southern, Northwest and Rocky Mountain. Today, there are 11 regions in the national standing.

“We were one of the founding charter members,” Parham said, “and our team performed at the very first College National Finals Rodeo which was held in San Francisco at Cow Palace in 1949.”

Parham said he participated on the Fresno State Rodeo Team when he attended Fresno State. He began as a student assistant at the Fresno State Quarter Horse Unit when his professor suggested he ride saddle broncos for the rodeo team.

Parham recalls asking his professor, “Are you nuts?”

His professor replied, “Well you’re a good athlete, and I know two or three of the guys on the team aren’t, so you’re going to give it a try because you can stay on a bronc.”

“And that’s how I got started,” Parham said. “I got talked into it after I quit playing football. It is that rush that I had lost when I quit football, and I got it back when I started rodeoing.”

Parham’s job at Fresno State today is to teach the rodeo team how to put on a rodeo. He teaches students how to obtain sponsors, advertise and finance the event. A lot goes into getting prepared for a rodeo, he said, including hiring rough-stock contractors, managing feed costs and paying for emergency vehicles.

Parham said for the first time since he can recall, the rodeo team finally has enough contestants for a full men’s and women’s team. There are 19 team members that participate as contestants, and 20 to 35 students fulfill other tasks, he said.

Contestants on the rodeo team participate in several events. The men’s team competes in saddle bronco riding, bareback riding, bull riding, tie-down roping, steer wrestling and team roping (header and heeler divisions). The women’s team competes in barrel racing, breakaway roping and goat tying. Each contestant has the opportunity to participate in more than one event with the goal of winning an all-around title for both the rodeo they compete in and the regional standing.

“Currently our team is ranked sixth in overall men’s team in the regional standings and fifth overall in the women’s team in the regional standing,” Parham said.

On March 20, the rodeo team hosted its 65th consecutive college rodeo at the Clovis rodeo grounds. Both the men’s team and the women’s team placed fifth overall.

The day following their home rodeo, Fresno State rodeo contestants competed at West Hills College. The men’s team placed fifth overall, and the women’s team placed third.

The Fresno State Rodeo Team spends a lot of time practicing for each competition and is looking for new members. Club meetings are 6 p.m. every Thursday at the Agriculture Sciences building Room 234.