Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Announcer Livens Up Rodeo
LINCOLN — The professional rodeo announcer might best be described by 21 times National Finals Rodeo announcer Boyd Polhamus.
“What we are is God’s gift to us, and what we become is our gift to God,” Polhamus said.
When the job is done well, announcers provide the gift of a soundtrack to accompany visual images rodeo fans treasure.
Polhamus, the youngest announcer ever selected to work the NFR at 25 in 1990, has been voted WPRA Announcer-of-the-Year three times (2000, 2003, 2005) and Professional Rodeo Cowboy’s Association (PRCA) Announcer-of-the-Year four times (2007, 2008, 2009, and 2012). He was recipient of the Lane Frost Memorial Award in 2009 during the Fort Worth Livestock Show and Rodeo.
A full schedule may take a professional rodeo announcer like Polhamus to about 40 venues a year which translates to 170 performances. The job is busy, involving frequent travel. Some announcers are on the road between 260 and 280 days a year.
The ability to convey personality and inject humorous insights into the event is a critical skill. Announcers help fill down times during the rodeo and highlight the accomplishments of cowboys and cowgirls up against critters, some with ornery dispositions like bulls that don’t want to be rode.
There are professional rodeo announcers, such as Andy Seiler, who sport a broadcast journalism degree. According to his website, Seiler has never met a stranger, a perspective that almost serves as part of the job description. Virtually all announcers, including Polhamus and Seiler, are former rodeo competitors.
Polhamus was born and raised in Wisconsin, becoming the state’s first threetime All-Around Champion Cowboy while competing at the high school level. He landed a scholarship to compete on the college level, which took him to Texas.
In the blatant honesty typical of a cowboy, Polhamus admits in his online bio, “It was clear that God gave me a lot more talent with a mic than he did with a rope; so it was an easy decision to go with the announcing.”
Polhamus has paid his dues. After graduating from college, he traveled around in a mini-pickup towing a motorcycle trailer hauling a camping tent, which he’d set up at the rodeo grounds, and used public showers.
He has since graduated to the luxury of a 44-foot Bloomer trailer complete with air conditioning and satellite television. No, he does not want to go back to the tent.
Seiler reveals, “I have always enjoyed talking to people and discussing everything rodeo,” in his online bio, adding. “I just never knew that the years of roping the dummy and working to be a champion translate later in life in trying to give contestants and fans alike that same winning feeling.”
Announcers come from varying vocations. Mike Mathis, who handled the announcing chores for the Old Fort Days Rodeo held at Fort Smith in May, started his professional career as an investment banker. In 1983, Mike earned a PRCA contract card and became a professional rodeo announcer. After six years of living a dual existence switching back-and-forth from the investment banker world, Mathis went fulltime informing and entertaining rodeo crowds.
The announcer enables a rodeo fan thirsting for action to drink in all of the sights and sounds in the arena with a fresh taste of enthusiastic high energy, impressing both the thrills and danger of the sport in the minds of the spectator.
Fans are invited to come get their fill at the 65th annual Lincoln Rodeo.