The honors keep coming for the Sutton Rodeo Company of rural Onida.
Their 8-year-old horse, Chuckulator, was named the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year for 2012.
"He's not a real old horse and he made the top 10 vote the last two years at the NFR," stock contractor Steve Sutton told the PRCA. "He's just kept getting better all the time, and then this year, we ventured out to a few more places that had short goes and he drew good cowboys and they all did well on him."
The awards were voted on by the top 20 cowboys in the world standings in saddle bronc, bareback and bull riding.
It has been a good month for the Sutton Rodeo Company of Onida.
Timer Kim Sutton was chosen to be a timer at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas for the third time. Plus, the company won all three categories of the 2012 Badlands Circuit Livestock of the Year, including Chuckulator, with the same three animals that won in 2011: 9-year-old Crystalyx was the bareback horse and 6-year-old Crystal Springs Peach was the Badlands bull of the year.
Bright future
This week, Texas Tech University and author Joel Kotkin will be releasing their new e-book "The Rise of the Great Plains: Regional Opportunity in the 21st Century." There will be a Webinar about it at 2 this afternoon at texastech.webex.com. Here is the description of the e-book from a Texas Tech release: "For decades, the Great Plains has been portrayed as a vast region better left to the buffalo and forces of nature. Far from dying, our research shows that the region is in the midst of a historic resurgence. The Great Plains enters the 21st century with a prairie wind at its back."
Dim future
In a 1987 essay tagged by some as the "Buffalo Commons" proposal by Rutgers University professors Deborah and Frank Popper, they argued that the use of the drier parts of the Great Plains is not sustainable and suggested the creation of a vast nature preserve by returning 139,000 square miles of the Plains - including most of South Dakota - to native prairie and by reintroducing free-roaming buffalo.
Fix 1
We had the wrong goalie for the Wings in their Oct. 19 4-2 road loss to Minot. Jared Stearns faced 27 shots with 24 saves (one Minot goal was on an empty net).
Fix 2
In the Northern State football project, the 1971 game reports from the 9-9 tied NSU vs. Nebraska-Kearney football game credited Mark Shannon for blocking a punt to set up a one-yard touchdown run for the Wolves by Rich Andrzejewski. Shannon and his 1971 NSU teammate Bruce Tucker both agree it was Tucker who blocked the punt. "I don't think I was even on the field for the punt," Shannon wrote.
He said it
South Dakotan and 60-year-old team roper Paul Tierney told the Billings Gazette and PRCA about rodeoing at his age: "Most don't know who Paul Tierney is; they have to look me up. I've worked with kids of people I competed with, now I'm working with the grandkids. We're onto the third generation."
81 mph gust
A wind gust reached 81 mph at 10:56 a.m. Oct. 18 in Rapid City.
John Papendick is the managing news-sports editor for the American News. Reach him at jpapendick@aberdeennews.com.
Blog: aberdeensports.net/inthehuddle.
Twitter:#jpapendick