In spring 1919, the Commercial Club of Reno, a precursor to the Reno Chamber of Commerce created a committee known as the Reno Rodeo Association. Organizers rode the inaugural Nevada Round-Up to successful events in 1920 and 1921 and brainstormed an idea in 1922 to bring even more national attention to Reno and the rodeo.

A contest would be held to select a Reno Rodeo Queen who would travel to Washington, D.C., and invite President Warren G. Harding to attend the rodeo in Reno. Mary Harrington, a teacher at Reno’s Southside Elementary School, was the top vote-getter and her trip across country to invite the president and present him with “a six-gallon hat”.

The trip drew its share of publicity, but Harding, whose wife was seriously ill at the time, declined the invitation. In addition, the costs of the trip (along with other expenses of the 1922 rodeo), bankrupted the Reno Rodeo Association. From 1923 to 1931, no rodeo was held as debts were paid and other special events were put on in the meantime.

It wasn’t until 1932 that another successful rodeo was held in Reno. It was held over the Labor Day weekend as the Fourth of July was reserved for a prize fight between Max Baer and Kingfish Levinsky that was promoted by former heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey, who had settled in Reno the year before.

Dempsey became a supporter of the rodeo that year and the winner of the saddle bronc riding - Canadian Pete Knight - was presented with the Jack Dempsey trophy for winning the event.

In 1935, the Reno Rodeo and Livestock Association was formed with Charles Sadleir­ the manager of the Riverside Hotel and a champion for good roads in northern Nevada was named president.

This was the start of the Reno Rodeo Association as it is known today and Sadleir, whose named is preserved on a street leading to the Reno Livestock Events Center, is known as the father of the Reno Rodeo.

The event was consistently successful into the 1940s. During World War II, when gas rationing had many competitors and travelers sticking close to home, the rodeo went off with mainly locals competing. In 1944, at the height of the war, the rodeo leaders voted not to hold a rodeo.

The Reno Rodeo returned in 1945 after a one-year hiatus and has been held every year since although there was a scare in 1963 in which some rodeo leaders thought about not holding an event.

Not long after the completion of the 1962 Reno Rodeo, the huge wooden grandstand that had been in place for decades burned to the ground in a spectacular fire.

Some members of the Reno Rodeo Association were worried new grandstands couldn’t be completed in time and voiced concern that no rodeo should be held at all in 1963.

That’s when Harry Frost stood up.

Frost, a tough-as-nails cowboy and former diminutive running back for the University of Nevada football team who owned the Reno Printing Company, was the incoming president for 1963 and he asserted “there would be a rodeo that year, by God, if he had to put it on by himself.” Frost’s assurances rallied the troops and the rodeo was a success.

This was also the year in which the leadership of the Reno Rodeo changed every year with a new president manning the all-volunteer organization.

In the last half-century, the rodeo has held to its roots and to that ideal expressed in the “Reno Evening Gazette” back in 1919: “It should continue in the hands of volunteer citizens who have started the ball rolling so auspiciously.”

When you look through the history, there were some struggles along the way, and it’s kind of a testament to the people who wouldn’t give up on it.

2025 Reno Rodeo