There’s no worse feeling for a rodeo cowboy than being broke down on the side of the road when time is tight and he’s in a hurry to get on to the next one. Just ask Luke Brown and Taylor Santos, who aren’t missing a rodeo beat right now because of a cowboy angel by the name of No Bull Bill Fick.
Luke broke down a month ago today pulling into the Reno Rodeo right before the Reno BFI.
“When I pulled into the cowboy parking lot on Saturday before Monday’s BFI, my truck just quit,” said 13-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo header Luke. “I called Bill for advice right off the bat, and thought I’d try to get it fixed right there in Reno. Bill wouldn’t have it. He told me I have more important things to worry about. He sent a truck from (Fick’s dealership in) Huntsville, Texas, and had it to me in Reno by BFI Monday.
“I trade trucks every year for only one reason—I don’t want to be stranded with my wife and kid (Lacy and Libby) and horses in the middle of the Mojave Desert. That’s scary.”
Taylor can relate. He just photo-finished it from Casper to Colorado Springs, because the five-hour trip took almost nine due to truck troubles. What did he do? He called Bill Fick.
“I called Bill Friday to tell him what was going on, because he knows everything there is to know about a Ford dually truck,” said 2020 Timed Event Champ of the World and NFR tie-down roper Taylor. “He gave me a few suggestions to try, and we figured out pretty fast that my truck needed more work than I had time for to get to the next rodeo in time.
“Bill told me, ‘You don’t worry about it. I’ll have a truck there. You just keep roping.’ He got on the horn and lined out a truck to deliver to me there in Colorado Springs, and had it to me yesterday (Sunday) afternoon.”
And yes, you guessed it—No Bull Bill’s driver delivered the truck Luke’s driven this last month to Taylor, after getting Luke’s truck’s recall repairs fixed and back to him. And it gets better.
“My dad (Luke Sr) bought that truck I just had that Taylor’s driving right now last year from Bill,” Luke said. “Then he decided he wanted a single wheel and instead of a dually, so he traded it back to Bill. Trucks are scarce right now, so when I got stranded, Bill sent me the truck Daddy traded in for his new truck.”
It only has 31,000 miles on it, runs like a top and arrived right on cue at the rescue for Luke and Taylor ready to hook onto their living-quarters trailers.
“I’ve done business with Bill for a long, long time,” Luke said. “I’ve never sent anyone to Bill who didn’t buy from him. He makes you a better deal than anyone else, and he goes out of his road to earn and keep your business. How he just helped me and Taylor, that’s stuff Bill does for cowboys all the time. Bill told me, ‘I need to get your dad’s truck to Taylor.’ He was so worried about getting it there on time for him.
“Bill just makes it so easy. His driver wanted to take Sunday off, but that wasn’t going to work for Taylor. So he kept going.”
The poor guy was tired. He told Taylor when he traded trucks with him yesterday that he’s delivered five trucks to cowboys since Thursday. When Bill Fick has a cowboy friend in need, he pulls out all the stops.
“Some people might not know it, but Bill ropes,” Santos said. “When I lived in Huntsville (while attending Sam Houston State University), Bill roped calves and would come to the 8X (Joe Beaver’s place, where Taylor lived at the time) to rope sometimes, and had a couple really nice calf horses.
“It’s not really a surprise that Bill treats cowboys like he does, because he is one. They call him No Bull Bill for a reason.”
Luke seconds that.
“Bill’s a friend, and he’s a great businessman with a heart of gold,” said Luke, who has Fick in his phone as No Bull Bill. “He’s just a great guy, and everybody will tell you that, because it’s the God-honest truth.”
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Full disclosure: This little rodeo-road rescue story was written while riding shotgun with Taylor from Colorado Springs to Ogden, where he’ll get to rope thanks to true cowboy friend Bill Fick.
Cowboy Army Helps Taylor Santos Tackle 2020 Timed Event Championship
