Family Man, Horseman and Roping Industry Icon
Dick Yates will be remembered as a legendary roper, master horseman and cowboy gentleman for the rest of time. But it was obvious by the way he lived his life that the title he was most proud of was family man. The Fab Five at the heart of Team Yates was Daddy Dick, Momma Jan, daughter Kelly, son JD and grandson Trey. And this proud patriarch loved his people more than steak, mashed potatoes and gravy with a cigar chaser.
“I’m proud of my family,” Dick told me two years ago, on the occasion of JD’s induction into both the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and AQHA Hall of Fame in 2024. “It’s been a good ride for my family and me.”
Dick passed peacefully in Pueblo on June 19, just shy of what would have been his 89th birthday on July 27. The highlight of his roping career had to be roping with JD at the 1975 NFR, when his young son was but a 15-year-old boy. They roped together at the first 13 of JD’s 21 NFRs (he heeled at 19 of them, headed at two for cousin Jay Wadhams and Bobby Harris, and also qualified for the National Finals Steer Roping 11 times).
A Family Business
There were no silver spoons here, and Dick worked for years as a Colorado state brand inspector to make ends meet. By necessity, the Yates family made a business of the rodeo business.
“Jan and I started off with very little,” Dick said. “One of the reasons JD was never a world champion team roper or all-around champ was because if, say, winning at a rodeo in the fall didn’t more than cover our expenses, we didn’t go. We were building and accumulating from poor folks to people who made our way. It had to pencil.
“I was working for the state as a brand inspector a lot of those years, and when I was working, we only went to about 35 rodeos a year. As rodeo got bigger and it took more money to make the Finals, we went to a few more. But in the summertime, we went to a lot of rodeos where we were back home that night.”
Dick’s beloved bride, Jan—who headed to Heaven in the spring of 2019—was the glue. When Dick, Kelly and JD all made the Finals in 1984, they became the first—and only—father-daughter-son trio ever to qualify the same year. Jan was the only one who didn’t get an NFR back number, but the other three knew there were none without her.
“Mom was the core—the center of our family,” Kelly said. “We all always helped each other. We shared a close bond, and we all pitched in and did whatever it took to make it work.”
When the circle of life led this crew back to Las Vegas to cheer on the third generation, JD shed a few happy tears when Trey stepped on stage to get his first NFR back number in 2018. Dick, Jan and Kelly didn’t miss a minute of it, either. Trey won that first Finals with Aaron Tsinigine, and has now qualified for four NFRs.
“It was pretty incredible growing up in this family,” said Trey, who fittingly roped at Reno the day Dick died; Dick loved Reno, and their family made so many unforgettable memories there. “My family in Pueblo is very tight and close-knit. When one of us is going through it, we’re going to figure it out together. My granddad was a man of few words, but when times were tough, we were going to bear down and get through it together.
“When my dad was gone working when I was young, my grandma was just like she was with Dick, JD and Kelly. She was the manager, and figured out where we were going, what time everything started and anything else that mattered. When my dad couldn’t make it home for the family team roping at the junior rodeos, my grandpa roped with me. He hadn’t rodeoed in a long time by then, but he was still a fierce competitor that studied the start and wanted to win. Roping was still a business to him.”
Leading by Quiet Example
Dick wasn’t big on barking orders. He instead led by quiet example.
“My dad set a standard,” JD said. “Be a man, and you get out of it what you put in. When he saw people not putting much into it, he didn’t have much to say. But if he saw you give 100%, he gave you 100% of his time and knowledge. I respected him for that. People who don’t care aren’t going to get anywhere anyway.”
Dick saw nothing but try in his son from the start. His daughter, too. So he poured everything he had into them.
“When it comes to the cowboy, horseman and roper I am, I credit my dad for all of it,” JD said. “He was the first one to teach me how to ride a horse, how to ride position and how to rope. Without the start he gave me, there’s no way I’d have been as successful as I have.
“My dad also taught me that there’s a lot more to life than winning. It was about getting there, competing, doing your job and doing the right thing. It was about roping the steer they drew you. I heard that nine million times. And whether he was a good one or not, doing your best. You’ve got to do your job, and you’re in charge of your own destiny. Making mistakes bothered him, but my dad was OK with winning thirds, fourths and fifths. He always said, ‘You’ve got to put a time in the books if you want to get paid.’”
Whether it was jackpotting, rodeoing, training horses or showing them, Team Yates has always delivered on the standard of excellence they demanded of themselves. And there was a non-negotiable set of standing rules in the practice pen, including remaining calm when the ride got a little rocky.
“I can always be proud to say that we never had a major fight in the arena,” JD said. “My dad didn’t allow it. We went there to practice and get better. In that arena, it was business and we talked like partners, not father and son. Outside that arena, we were father and son. That’s just the way it was, and I never challenged my dad, because I always knew he was better than me. I figured out early on that he knew what he was talking about. And if we weren’t successful, we couldn’t afford to go.
My dad was the best partner I ever had. There’s nobody I enjoyed roping with more than family, whether it was my dad, my cousin or my son. That means the most.
JD Yates
That feeling was definitely mutual.
“JD and I roped together as a business,” Dick said in 2024. “A lot of fathers and sons fuss and don’t get along, especially in the roping pen and when they’re working together. That was never a problem at our camp. We talked about things, but there was never any feuding or fussing about horses or missing. We went out there to work at it and get better, so we could win money.
“Building a good reputation was always important to me, whether I was roping or training and selling horses. JD went everywhere with me when he was a little guy and I was (brand) inspecting. He went with me to the sale barn, and grew up around ranchers and didn’t ever get to play with other kids. He grew up around grownups, so he could talk to anybody about anything when he was just a little old kid.”
The Dick Yates Code of Conduct
Trey was raised in that same arena with that same set of rules and the Dick Yates Code of Conduct, inside and out of it.
“We’re fortunate most of all to be a close family,” Trey said. “Roping and rodeo is just what we do. Roping is a big bonus, because it’s something we get to do together. There’s no hollering, yelling or screaming in our arena. It’s a place we get to enjoy getting to do what we love to do. Together.
“The moral code in our family is the most important thing. My dad and my grandpa always say, ‘Just treat people right and with respect, and the roping will take care of itself.’ I’m always proud of my family.”
Those were Dick’s words first. Then JD’s. Naturally, Trey now lives by them, too. JD looks and acts more like Dick every day, and Trey is following suit. The DNA is strong, and it all started with the proud patriarch.
“My grandpa was always honest, even if it hurt,” Trey said. “He didn’t say much. But when he did say something, you better listen. Grandpa was the whole package. He was a good family man, and he was happy all the time. It was never about my granddad. My grandma was the same way. It was always about making it work for everybody else. My grandpa was everything I want to be, and then some.
“I come from a family of hard-working people. Whatever it takes. My dad didn’t luck into his success in the rodeo and horseshow worlds—he worked his tail off for it. My grandpa was the same way. He was retired from brand inspecting by the time I came along, but he never quit working, whether he was shoeing horses, welding or roping. That work ethic’s been handed down in our family, and just like my grandpa’s been my dad’s best friend his whole life, my dad is mine.”
So much of Dick’s wisdoms were never spoken. Kelly, JD and Trey learned from listening to him, but also by just watching the way he went about working with horses and people, roping and life.
“My grandpa had so much wisdom, and up to the minute he took his last breath, his mind was as sharp as anybody’s,” Trey said. “He wouldn’t just come out and tell you. You had to ask him. And he was the most honest person I’ve ever been around. That’s just how it was. What he told you was what it was. There was a right way and a wrong way to do things, with no room for error. And as Grandpa put it, ‘By God, you better learn from my mistakes.’”
Dick served his team roping peers for many years as the event director, back in the days before team roping was even a standard event at every PRCA rodeo. Trey figures he used the old Dick-ism, “Sometimes we’ve just got to keep our mouths shut and ride it out” in that role, too.
“People have always told me one of the things they appreciated about my grandpa was that he was always the same,” Trey continued. “What my granddad, grandma, dad and aunt have gotten done is amazing. There are so many accolades. But their most important legacy is our family, and what we’ve accomplished together—all on one team. When they were rodeoing together, it was like one moving part.
“Roping aside, I want to carry on what the Yates name means outside the arena. Because that’s the most important thing. And it all started with my grandpa. I have never met one person who had a bad word to say about him. They may have gotten some ass chewings, like the time Dad was roping with Jay Ellerman and Grandpa was roping with Jay (Wadhams), and they got turned out at North Platte slack because Jay and JD had forgotten about the time change. Grandpa wasn’t too happy about that. So he rolled up the truck windows and lit a cigar. That was their punishment.”
A Heart for Helping People
In JD’s heading era, he qualified for the 1996 NFR with cousin Jay, and won the 2010 BFI with him when they were heavy into showing horses.
“All of the Yates family brothers (Don, Bill and Dick) and sisters (Sharron and Raeana) were close, and Dick and my mom (Raeana Yates Wadhams) have always been extra close,” Jay said. “We lived about 20 miles from Dick and Jan, and I lived there at their house in high school and college, because they were closer to town and I was roping there all the time. Mom and Dad (John) came by every day after work.
“I learned to rope in Dick’s arena. The first year I went and helped JD at the World Show, I was still in high school. Our family is very unique, and it’s kind of crazy how it all fell into place, because back when we were young, they might have only had seven or eight steers and not many horses. Dick, JD and Kelly worked hard at what they made a living at, which was rodeoing, but the beginnings were humble for all of us.”
Dick had a huge heart for helping people, and that extended far beyond blood relatives. Eleven-time NFR header Reg Camarillo, who won four NFR average titles heading for cousin Leo, had that gate to the Yates arena opened wide to him when he was in the Army and stationed at Fort Carson, between Colorado Springs and Pueblo.
“Reg stayed with us some, and went to a lot of jackpots with me and rode my horses,” Dick remembered fondly on the occasion of Reg being inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City in 2024. “Reg was a great header, but he heeled a lot when he was here in Colorado, because he out-heeled most people in this country back then. Reg is a really nice, kind-hearted guy, and he became one of the family. JD and Kelly were pretty little when Reg was around here a lot, but they just loved him. When he left, they both cried.”
Trey’s not yet met Reg. But because he knew his granddad loved him, he tracked down his number and called Reg to let him know Dick had died.
“When I told him, Reg said, ‘I loved that man,’” Trey said. “I’ve never met anyone who hasn’t said that about my granddad. What a legacy I can hopefully carry on for him. He raised all of us to be good people, so it shouldn’t be a task. It’s just what we do and who we are.
“My grandpa knew what was most important in life, and that was his family. He was a winner, and always wanted to win. But family mattered more. He was just one in a million.”
My Dad, My Best Friend and My Hero
For all he’s won and done—32 National Finals back numbers and 49 AQHA world championships, and counting—nothing tops togetherness for JD to this day.
“The most incredible year of my career for me was in 1984, when my dad, my sister and me all made the Finals together,” he said of the year after Dick and JD won the Presidential Command Performance Rodeo and were personally presented their buckles by President Ronald Reagan. “I rodeoed with my dad, my mom went with my sister, and we all got there. That was 42 years ago now, and it’s still very special to me. Always will be, because we are a tight family.
“I don’t know if I can ever be as great a dad to my son as my dad was to me. But I can try. And I had the best role model. I’d give anything to wear my dad’s boots. But in my eyes, he’ll always be on a pedestal. My dad, my best friend and my hero.”
