Legendary barrel man calls it a career, leaves lasting memories
HOUSTON — Sunday marked the end of an era as Leon Coffee stepped into the barrel for the last time.
The legendary bullfighter and barrel man, who has been entertaining crowds since 1969, will still make appearances at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo but will not be working from the barrel that made him famous. He’s also been a mainstay at the San Antonio Livestock Show & Rodeo since 1983.
A former rodeo competitor, Coffee started at the Houston rodeo at the Astrodome in 1993, replacing Wilbur Plaugher, who retired after some 30 years on the job.
He already had been a rodeo clown for two decades, but the Houston rodeo, with the 60,000plus attendance at the time, was a huge advance in the field. A couple years later, he went from bullfighting to full-time barrel man.
When he started at Rodeohouston, Coffee was one of only three men who had gone to the national finals as a bullfighter and barrel man.
“When I first started working the barrel, I didn’t realize it was as tough as it was,” Coffee said. “I’ve been knocked out more in the barrel than I ever have out of it.”
Coffee, who is from Blanco, a Hill Country town about an hour west of Austin, was born Luke Warm Coffee, as a joke courtesy of his father. Before he turned 1, his parents renamed him Luke Leon.
As funny as he is, and as energetic as his performances always have been, Coffee with his everpresent green hat and wild-colored shirts helped make audiences forget the danger in dealing with 2,000-pound bulls and saving riders who have been thrown off of them.
Coffee said he had broken more than 130 bones in his career, and died and was brought back to life in an ambulance once after being kicked in the head by a bull at the Washington State Fair.
He was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2018. He will be inducted into the Black Cowboy Hall of Fame on March 24.