The ProRodeo Hall of Fame Selection Committee voted them all in during meetings at the Hall of Fame April 13, along with third-generation stock contractor Bennie Beutler of Elk City, Okla., and bullfighter Rex Dunn of Hastings, Okla.
The ProRodeo Hall of Fame induction week, July 14-19, will include a Special Kids Rodeo, a golf tournament, the Commissioner’s Classic Team Roping and the Cowboy Ball, in addition to the 10 a.m.-noon induction ceremonies in the garden area of the Hall on July 17.
Mayo, along with his brothers, Don and Bob, and Jim Houston, is credited with altering the style of bareback riding in the 1960s, taking a position farther back on the horse, and being “a little more wild.”
A talented all-around hand, Mayo, 68, also qualified twice for the NFR in bull riding, rode saddle broncs and occasionally roped steers. He twice finished among the top three in the world all-around standings and won the Linderman Award for all-around excellence at both ends of the arena in 1968.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Mayo said. “I had kind of given up hope. I thought it might never happen—that I’d been bypassed. I’m sure glad I got in. I always felt I was good enough to be considered, that my career measured up.”
McBeth, of Andover, Kan., was also an 11-time NFR qualifier (1965-74, 1978), all in saddle bronc riding. In his world championship season of 1974, he took the lead on March 15, was assured of the title before the NFR, and finished second in the average at Oklahoma City to break the event’s single-season earnings record by more than $10,000.
Often identified as the most talented bull rider never to win a world title, Flynn, of Charleston, Ark., qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 10 times (1974-82, 1985) and set a record for most bull riding average titles won at the NFR (1975, 1981-82), later equaled by Jim Sharp. Flynn, 59, finished second in the PRCA season standings three times, losing the 1980 title to Don Gay by a mere $188.
His 98-point ride on Tommy Steiner’s Red Lightning at Palestine, Ill., in 1979 was a world record for a dozen years and remains the second-highest score in ProRodeo history in any roughstock event.
The Beutler name has been synonymous with stock contracting since 1929, when brothers Elra, Jake and Lynn Beutler began providing stock to Oklahoma and Texas rodeos. Jake and Lynn—a member of the inaugural ProRodeo Hall of Fame induction class of 1979—kept the sibling business running in similar form, while Elra eventually teamed with son Jiggs to form the original Beutler & Son marquee.
Bennie Beutler, 61, worked with his father, Jiggs, and grandfather in the family business, and after his elders’ deaths in the 1980s, Bennie joined forces with E.K. Gaylord II to form Beutler & Gaylord Rodeo. That partnership endured for a dozen years, with Beutler being named PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year in 1997. In 2001, Bennie and son Rhett began a partnership that reclaimed the firm’s original name, Beutler & Son.
Dunn, 54, was selected to work three NFRs (1983, 1985-86), two Canadian Finals Rodeo and 13 circuit finals over a 16-year professional bullfighting career in which his deceptively effortless style earned him the nickname “Mr. Smooth.” He twice finished second in the Wrangler Bullfighting standings—making six appearances—and was voted PRCA Clown of the Year in 1985.
