Bud Sankey to be inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame

C.L. “Bud” Sankey, a rodeo cowboy from Rose Hill, will be inducted Oct. 11 into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame in Dodge City.

Orin Friesen, operations manager at the Prairie Rose Chuckwagon Supper near Benton, said he nominated Sankey. Friesen said he has been trying to get Sankey into the hall of fame since 2008.

“If anyone deserves to be in the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame” it’s Sankey, Friesen said in an e-mail.

“The toughest part is deciding which category to put him in. He could fit into any of them. But since I have to choose one category, I pick Rodeo Cowboy.”

Sankey, 78, was the 1972 National Cutting Horse Champion. He has won more than 150 championship trophies, raises Professional Rodeo Championship Association bucking bulls and founded the Sankey Rodeo School. His rodeo school has been called one of the most renowned in the nation by The New York Times. His Sankey saddles are sold around the world.

In the early 1960s, Sankey invented the “Sankey Twister,” one of the first versions of a mechanical bull bucking machine.

“I feel honored,” Sankey said. “I don’t feel I deserve it because I’ve had a lot of help from people through the years. You know, customers who bought the Sankey Saddles and took our rodeo classes.

“I tell you, at first, when they called from the Hall of Fame I mostly made a lot of excuses why I couldn’t do it. And this woman, I’m not sure who I was talking with, said, ‘Bud, get your butt out here.’ And I said, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ ”

Sankey has passed along his passion for rodeo to his sons.

Lyle Sankey has qualified for the national finals in bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding and now runs Sankey Rodeo Schools and Equipment in Branson, Mo.; Ike Sankey runs Sankey Pro Rodeo in Joliet, Mont., and contracts the livestock for some of the most famous rodeos in the world.

“Lyle is the national cowboy, Ike is the one that takes the stock to national finals, and I am the one that stay’s here and cleans the stalls,” Bud Sankey said. “All I’ve got is the pitchfork.”

Sankey has a lifetime of stories and jokes. He is originally from Fort Morgan, Colo., and said he was invited to Kansas in the 1960s to help break some horses.

“That was back when I had a $1.98, it was approaching wintertime and it sounded real good,” Sankey said. “So I shut the Colorado operation down and drove out here in a beat-up old truck.

“I met Paul Mann at the bank, sat in his fancy new car and he said I can pay you $500 a month. He said he could clean out one of the horse stalls and make room for me there and even put a hot plate in there.

“I told him … ‘You get some other guy out here. I’m a long ways from home, and I’ve enjoyed about all this I can stand.’ I ended up getting $1,500 a month in advance.”

Before long, Sankey had his own ranch in Rose Hill and was teaching others the fine art of rodeo.

He can ride, he said, “Anything that has any hair on it.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2014 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Bud Sankey to be inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame."