The Poway Rodeo returns for its 54th year on Friday, Sept. 25, and Saturday, Sept. 26, with three performances packed into two days at the Poway Valley Riders Association arena. Expect bull riding, barrel racing, tie-down roping and mutton bustin’ alongside a themed tribute to the volunteers who built the event from scratch more than five decades ago. Organizers say the milestone weekend leans hard into nostalgia while still making room for the next generation of competitors and fans.
This year’s theme, “The Legacy Continues,” runs through all three performances and is meant to honor the past, future and current generations who have kept the rodeo alive, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Friday night’s 7:30 p.m. performance is dedicated to “Honoring the Legends,” a tribute to the people who helped build the Poway Rodeo, with gates opening at 5:30 p.m. Rodeo committee member Darci Van Meter said families of past rodeo builders will be invited in recognition of their contributions, per the same report.
Saturday brings a doubleheader. The 1 p.m. afternoon show is themed “The Future of Rodeo,” spotlighting young competitors and the sport’s next faces, while the 7:30 p.m. evening performance, “Today’s Trailblazers,” salutes the stock contractors and volunteers currently keeping the event running. Murray Bankhead said the rodeo is expected to draw crowds as large as in past years, and noted that the whole affair is organized by community members who are simply passionate about rodeo and Poway, the Union-Tribune reports.
A Volunteer-Run Event With Half a Century of Roots
The Poway Rodeo remains a 100% volunteer organization, a structure that traces back to its founding. It was first established in 1973 by Poway Valley Riders Association members John Walker and Jack Miller, who traveled to Oklahoma City at their own expense with their wives to secure sanctioning from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and to partner with the local Lions Club and Chamber of Commerce, according to Poway Rodeo. That inaugural 1973 rodeo went on to serve as a filming location for the Oscar-winning documentary *The Great American Cowboy*, featuring the ProRodeo Hall of Fame bull Oscar, who was later successfully ridden for the first time in Poway by cowboy Randy Magers in 1975…