Beloved Indiana TV’s ‘Cowboy Bob,’ 73, dies

INDIANAPOLIS — Bob Glaze, a beloved children’s TV show personality known around Indiana as “Cowboy Bob,” has died. He was 73. The guitar-strumming cowboy and animal lover was an after-school fixture on Indianapolis’ WTTV Channel 4 throughout the 1970s and 80s.

He died Friday at the Community Heart and Vascular Hospital in Indianapolis, his wife, Gail Glaze, said.

Glaze, who started out as a camera operator, became host of the children’s variety show “Chuckwagon Theater,” which later became “Cowboy Bob’s Corral.”

He used the show to engage children in lessons about such things as fire safety and animals. He even taught his dog, Tumbleweed, to demonstrate how to stop, drop and roll.

He was helped by a gang of playful puppets, the most memorable of which he dubbed Sourdough the Singing Biscuit. The inspiration for that quirky sidekick came from a leftover biscuit that was dropped on the studio floor.

Glaze said he wanted his show to be more than clowning around.

“I wanted to be, if possible, a surrogate brother, father to the kids out there,” he said. “That was my motivation.”

While working as a TV camera operator, Glaze was enlisted to play guitar and sing as a guest on another of the station’s children’s programs. His performance was well-received and he was chosen later to host a new show. Asked what character he wanted to play, the Oklahoma native and experienced horseman immediately chose a cowboy.