Local bull rider, movie stuntman has dreams of Stampede glory
For only being 22 years old, Brock Radford’s resume is lengthy.
The Dewinton-raised, Longview resident has performed stunts on Fargo, AMC’s Hell on Wheels, The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and a Netflix movie called Hold The Dark which was filmed in Alberta.
Of course, when he is on camera, he is only acting.
But the three seconds or so that he spent on a bull named Somethin’ Cool?
And the moments he was flung into the air and onto the dirt at the Calgary Stampede’s infield?
And, those few seconds before he was able to pick himself up and get out of the way of the bull? That was all real life. Tuesday’s opening day in Pool B competition was a tough one. Seven of the 10 cowboys in the field were bucked off including Canadians Tyler Pankewitz of Ponoka, Prince Albert’s Tanner Byrne, and Cody Coverchuk of Meadow Lake, Sask.
The winner — J.B. Mauney — had a score of 88 points on Bomb Shell.
“When you come up here, that first day, if it’s your first time, it’s a pretty big deal,” he said. “You have those jitters in you. When you get that first one under your belt, it’s kind of all right, ‘We know how to do this. We know what’s going on. Now let’s just ride bulls.’
“It fires me up every time I come here.”
Ditto for Radford, who is basically a local.
“That’s what makes it big for me,” he said. “I grew up in De Winton and it’s kind of on a hill that overlooked pretty much all of Calgary.
“I’m 25 minutes from the rodeo grounds from where I grew up so I always wanted to go to the Stampede and watch and my grandma was heavily involved in it.
Radford’s father Max, who is from Australia, has a transport business which works with incoming film crews in the Alberta area.
But Max Radford really got into the movie scene through his mother-in-law (Brock’s grandma) Isabelle Miller, a two-time Canadian champion barrel racer and a pioneer of rodeo.
“She was in Shanghai Noon with Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson and wrangled the horses and all the animals,” Brock explained.
“So, when my dad came over here (from Australia) he started wrangling on movies and rode horses and eventually switched.”
And, of course, roped Brock into the business.
But, this week at the Calgary Stampede, he has other goals.
“I’ve worked some movies with my Dad’s so I’ll do transport and I’ve done stunts before,” Radford said. “But, yeah, that’s not really my main career focus. If I need money in the winter, I’ll go work stunt stuff. But I don’t like thinking about that stuff right now.
“I’m having fun winning money and riding bulls.”
After years of watching it from afar — and steadily climbing up the professional ranks — Radford finally qualified for his first Stampede by finishing top-four in the Canadian Pro Rodeo Association standings in 2016.
“It’s been kind of a Great White Buffalo I’ve been chasing for a few years,” Radford said. “It’s the biggest rodeo in the world but, for me, it’s my hometown rodeo.”
“I’m one of the weird ones that can honestly say I’ve dreamt of winning Calgary more than I’ve dreamt of winning a Canadian title.”