San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Keeping a legacy alive
Black cowboy at rodeo part of culture dating back to Old West
Rodeo champion Shad Mayfield’s skills were passed down from his ancestors.
His forebearers were Black ranchers in the 1800s on the far East Side who hosted Old West competitions called the Sunday Special. In a blast of dirt, cowboys would leap from their horse and then rope, flip and tie a calf. The wrangler with the best time won a jackpot and bragging rights.
Mayfield, 23, is one of three Black cowboys competing at the 75th annual San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, wrapping up this week.
“I love to do what I do,” he said. “It’s awesome being a part of rodeo. The heritage I come from is something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. It’s in our family, in our blood.”
Rising through the ranks, Mayfield finished first at the San Antonio rodeo in 2020 with a time of 6.9 seconds. That same year, he won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Tie Down Roper world championship.
In this year’s tie-down roping rounds, Mayfield competed with fellow Black cowboys Cory Solomon, a nine-time qualifier, and John Douch, a three-time Wrangler qualifier.
Past Black rodeo participants from Texas include longtime rodeo clown and bullfighter Leon Coffee and Fred Whitfield, an eight-time Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association tie-down champion. Both men are in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and will be inducted into the Black Cowboy Hall of Fame on March 24.
Earlier this month, Mayfield came in first at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, and he racked up several wins in the San Antonio competition headed into the Saturday finals.
His nickname, “Money Mayfield,” reflects his top earnings and standings on the circuit.
Mayfield’s sister, Shelby, ran barrel
races. His mother’s family competed in rodeo events. His father, Sylvester Mayfield, a tie-down roper, was the first African American to qualify in the category at the National Finals Rodeo in 1985.
“It opened up a whole new generation,” Mayfield said.
The wrangler said he was fortunate to compete in a rodeo that’s open to everyone.
“There’s no Black and white. Everyone is one,” Mayfield said. “If you have a cowboy hat, you’re a cowboy, and that’s why I choose this culture.”
The San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum keeps stories of Black homesteaders alive by partnering with three large ranches: Alexander Ranch near Austin, Stean Ranch in Kingsbury and Wilcox Ranch in Seguin/Jakes Colony.
One of this year’s rodeo commercials featured one of the legacy ranchers’ descendants, Grant Stean, a young Black cowboy twirling a lariat among a flash of images.
Deborah Omowale Jarmon, CEO/director of SAAACAM, said she hoped the image wasn’t a flavor of the month but that it would lead to a partnership that tells the story of Black cowboys.
“The legacy of the West didn’t start with John Wayne movies but much earlier,” she said. “San Antonio is known as the gateway to the West. It’s important that history is shared.”
In the 1800s, African Americans caring for horses were a regular sight in the region. According to Rosalind Alexander-Kasparik, her great-greatgrandfather, Daniel Alexander, trained and bred thoroughbred horses.
He taught others to race and ride horses for tasks. Seeing an enslaved person on horseback in Bastrop and Travis counties wasn’t unusual. Alexander-Kasparik said his training also empowered his students to flee slavery on horseback.
Those lessons, she said, showed her ancestor’s perseverance, a trait that allowed many enslaved people to survive across the state and the nation.
Between 1865 and 1895, an estimated 35,000 men drove herds up the trail; one-third were Black or Mexican, wrote Ronald Davis, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Texas, on the website Not Even Past. Black cowboys in antebellum Texas is one of Davis’ areas of interest.
Davis included information about Myrtis Dightman — called the “Jackie Robinson of Rodeo.” Dightman, born in Crockett, was the first Black cowboy to earn a world title as the No. 1 ranked bull rider in 1967.
And Black cowboy Bill Pickett is known as the creator of steer wrestling, or bulldogging. Pickett, born in Travis County in 1870, and his brothers tamed wild cattle. Pickett subdued steers by twisting their horns and biting them on the lower lip.
Mayfield’s chosen occupation keeps him traveling from rodeo to rodeo, chasing excellence.
When he’s home in Lipan, southwest of Fort Worth, Mayfield is not only fine-tuning his skills but building trust with his horses as he puts them through their paces.
Mayfield’s favorite moments on the road are driving his truck and listening to country music as he hauls his trailer across the country. He finds peace while traveling across wide-open landscapes, where the sun sets beyond mountains, on his way to one more rodeo.
But ironically, the high-energy sounds of hip-hop are what settle Mayfield’s nerves before heading into crowd-packed arenas. The rapid-fire verses of Jeezy, Megan Thee Stallion and Little Baby fire up his adrenaline and lower his anxiety.
And with each twirl of his lasso, Mayfield pays tribute to the African American men and women of the Old West who blazed a path for future generations.