Dan Taylor (rodeo)

Dan Collins Taylor
Born	(1923-09-02)September 2, 1923 Doole, McCulloch County, Texas, USA
Died	Doole, Texas
Residence	Doole, Texas
Occupation	Rodeo performer and promotor
Spouse(s)	Berva Dawn Sorensen Taylor (married 1952–2010, his death)
Children	Three daughters Four grandchildren
Parent(s)	Babb and Kathleen Taylor

Dan Collins Taylor (September 2, 1923 – November 3, 2010) was an American cowboy and rodeo performer and promoter.

Rodeo career

Taylor was born to third-generation ranchers Babb Taylor (1904–1980) and Kathleen Taylor (1904–1987) in rural Doole near Brady in McCulloch County in central Texas. He graduated from high school in 1941.

From 1961 until 2009, Taylor was the "boss" of Chute 9, the timed-event competition, at the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming. His total service to CFD rodeo was sixty-four years, 1945–2009, including time also as a contestant and a flag judge.

According to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, Taylor was riding horses at the age of two, roping at five, and competing in rodeo at fifteen. In 1942, at 18 he was the youngest professional roper in the world. That year, he joined the Cowboy Turtles Association, the predecessor organization to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, of which Taylor was subsequently the president from 1986 to 1987.

In 1944, Taylor entered roping competition at Cheyenne Frontier Days. In 1950, he finished third in world calf-roping competition. In 1951, he ranked fourth in world competition.

During his competitive years, Taylor won tie-down roping titles at San Antonio, Texas, Boston, Massachusetts, Ellensburg, Washington, Nampa, Idaho (the Snake River Stampede Rodeo), and Ogden and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Taylor was also chute director eleven times (1965–1973 and 1978–1979) at the National Finals Rodeo, when that competition was held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, prior to its move to Las Vegas, Nevada. He was chute director six times at the National Finals Steer Roping in Guthrie, Oklahoma. From 1954 to 1956, Taylor was the director of the PRCA calf roping section.

Legacy

In 2005, Taylor and his wife, the former Berva Dawn Sorensen (born ca. 1930), were inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in the Fort Worth Stockyards in Fort Worth. In 2006, Taylor was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, formerly known as the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. That same year he was also inducted into the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame. He is also an inductee of the Dublin Rodeo Museum in Dublin, Texas.

In July 2011, nearly ten months after his death in his hometown of Doole, Texas, Taylor was honored in special ceremonies at Chute 9 at the 2011 Cheyenne Frontier Days competition, with speeches and a Power Point presentation about his life.

Shirley Churchill of Cheyenne, a long-time Taylor friend, said that she did not "know of anyone who has been or will probably ever be a better advocate of Cheyenne Frontier Days than Dan Taylor. ... He could make a decision without worrying what someone else thought. Dan was a phenomenon to run Chute 9 because his reputation was never for sale."

Tom Hines, another Taylor friend, described him as a "cowboy's cowboy."

The stock contractor Harry Vold said that Taylor "lived and breathed Cheyenne Frontier Days ... If ever there was a person who dedicated his life to Chute Number 9 at Cheyenne it was Dan Taylor."