Six-time NFR heeler John Paboojian passed away last week at 89. And in visiting with his family and old partners and friends, I learned so much more about the quiet winner I watched work as a kid.
Some of Paboojian’s most memorable roping wins included the 1969 Oakdale 10 Steer and 1970 Chowchilla Stampede, both in California behind Billy Darnell. On the rodeo side, it’d be hard for “Poojie” to beat winning the 1975 California Rodeo Salinas heeling for Ron Goodrich.
Then there were those six NFRs, all at Jim Norick Arena in Oklahoma City. Paboojian heeled for Junior Muzio at his first Finals in 1966, and they won Round 8 in 7.1. John finished 11th in the world that year with $3,790, back when 11th ranked you against all team ropers, headers and heelers. Also remember that team roping did not become a standard event until long after that era of cowboys’ careers. The 1966 NFR was an eight-header, and Jimmy Rodriguez and Ken Luman won the average with 116.2 on eight.
Paboojian roped with Darnell at his second NFR in 1968, and it was a nine-header that year. Darnell and Paboojian won Round 1 in 9.4, and fourth in Round 9 with an 8.9-second run. Billy Wilson and Leo Camarillo won the 1968 NFR average with 104.6 on nine, and Poojie finished 10th in the world among all team ropers.
Darnell and Paboojian roped together again at the 1969 NFR, and placed in Rounds 1, 3, 8 and 9. Poojie was that year’s reserve world champion team roper after finishing just $719 behind champ Jerold Camarillo—$11,532 to $10,813. Reg and Leo Camarillo won the nine-head 1969 NFR average with 115.6 on nine steers.
Seven years later, Paboojian returned to the NFR in OKC heeling for Goodrich. They won Round 1 in 7.7, second in Round 3 in 6.9, second in Round 8 in 6.8, and split third and fourth in Round 10 in 6.9. Camarillo cousins Reg and Leo struck again in the average, this time a 10-header, with 106.7 on 10. The Lion won the world that year with $28,102 on the season.
Paboojian heeled for David Motes at the 1976 NFR, and they split Round 7 with Jim Wheatley and John Bill Rodriguez in 6.3, and placed in two other rounds. Doyle Gellerman and Frank Ferreira Sr won that year’s NFR average with 102.2 on 10. That was the first of three-straight years where the world championships were decided sudden death on money won at the Finals (failed experiment). Bucky Bradford and Ronnie Rasco were the champs with $4,512 a man, and it was a heartbreaker for Leo. He and Reg finished just $152 behind with $4,360 after Leo dominated the regular season.
Paboojian heeled for Hall of Fame header Jimmy Rodriguez at his last NFR in 1977. They won Round 4 in 6.7, but another sudden-death NFR year for the gold buckles gave those to the Motes brothers, David and Dennis, who roped 10 steers in 94.6 to take both the NFR average title and the world titles with $4,161 apiece at the Finals.
“I had three steady partners in my whole career—Gene Rambo, Ken Luman and John Paboojian,” said Rodriguez, who won his first of four world team roping titles in 1959 at 18 years old, and also won the NFR average four times. “When it was go twice, I sometimes roped with Ace Berry and my brother (John Bill Rodriguez). But I started my career with Rambo, then roped and did roping schools with Luman for 13 years—which was unheard of to rope together that long—then finished out with John.
“John Paboojian was a fierce competitor. He had no fear. One year, I think in 1969 when we roped on the grass in the football stadium at Livermore, John was roping with Billy Darnell and riding his great horse King. The steer slipped on the grass, and John somehow roped him by two feet when his legs were out of the arena. When he dallied, he brought that steer’s feet back inside that panel fence. I was standing in the arena with Leonard Ferreira watching the rest of slack, and when Leonard saw that he swore he’d never enter another rodeo. And he didn’t. Billy and Paboojian had been kicking our ass, and he’d seen enough.”
The first time Rodriguez ever roped with Paboojian was at a roping held during the rodeo in Santa Maria on a nearby ranch. They won it.
“John was a quiet, polite, respectful guy, but he was such a fierce competitor that he believed he could beat anyone, anytime, anywhere,” Rodriguez remembers. “And a lot of times, he did. I firmly believe that if he hadn’t farmed so many grapes, he would have won the world. And he damn near did beat Jerold that year.
“At one time, Paboojian farmed 1,000 acres of grapes in the San Joaquin Valley. He grew grapes and made raisins out of them, and also table grapes. But he loved to rope, and roping was his passion. John also had three of the best heel horses you could ever have.”
Yes, King, Goldy and Good Times were some great ones.
“And I headed on Good Times at the Finals one year is how good a horse he was,” Rodriguez said.
As did David Motes, who bought Good Times from Paboojian a couple years after winning both Salinas and the world on him—heading for brother Dennis—in 1977.
Paboojian also was a fearless pilot, according to Rodriguez, who survived multiple scrapes thanks to Poojie’s moxie.
“John had two airplanes—a big one and a little one,” Jimmy said. “He flew us all around, and this guy believed he could do anything. We sometimes flew in and got on guys like Dick Yates’s horses. One time, John, me, Goodrich and another pilot were flying from Palm Springs slack back to Riverside for the 10-steer average, and there was an electrical fire in the engine. Smoke started coming into the cockpit.
“John cut the engine off, and we were gliding. All you could see was car lights on the freeway between Banning and Palm Springs. I spotted a dirt road where we could maybe land, and about the time the sun was going down the lights came on at the Banning airport. Goodrich said, ‘Hey, there’s an airport.’ We were still gliding, and the smoke was so thick that I told him, ‘You’ve been a good friend, but I think we’re going to bite the dust right here.’
“John was in his early days of flying back then, thus the second pilot. When the wheels hit the runway, he told us, ‘Don’t jump out until we’re completely stopped, or the wings will cut your heads off.’ Then here came the fire truck.”
Rodriguez was the RCA team roping director back then, and that was not their only brush with death in a Paboojian-piloted plane.
“We were in Vegas one night at slack after the rodeo, back when it was held in a small building at the Las Vegas Convention Center,” Rodriguez said. “Paboojian’s plane was getting worked on, so the Cessna people in Fresno sent a new plane and a pilot to pick up John, me, Roy Cooper, Tom Ferguson and Dave Brock in Vegas. We were headed back to Fresno to go to slack at Turlock the next morning.
“Just as we were getting over Mt. Whitney, the plane started cutting out right over Bishop. We could see the snow on the ground. Ferguson and Brock were asleep in the back, and Roy was up front with me. I told him, ‘We’re in trouble.’ We glided for a while, and the pilot called the tower with an SOS. I told Roy, ‘I think we’re in bad trouble.’ Roy said, ‘Jimmy, don’t worry about a thing, we’ve got Tom Ferguson with us, and he’s the luckiest son of a bitch alive. Nothing’s going to happen to us.’
“About 30 seconds later, the engine caught again. What had happened is we took off in the heat in Vegas, and then over Bishop the temperature dropped so fast the fuel line airlocked and the engine started to freeze. But it recalibrated itself and caught again. Anyway, we made it, they all stayed at the apartment in Fresno with Carla and me, and we all made Turlock slack the next morning.”
John and Rose Paboojian’s oldest child and only son—John Jr. had two sisters, Jeanette and Joanne—was a standout football and baseball player at Fowler High School. After graduating in 1955, he attended Fresno State for a year before enlisting in the US Marine Corps in 1956. Private First Class Paboojian was stationed at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and in the Philippines. When his service to our country ended in 1958, John returned to farming grapes. He married Carolyn Judith Thompson on February 4, 1961.
Paboojian is survived by his wife of 65 years, Carolyn; son Nick and his sons, Caleb and Aaron; son Greg, his wife, Robin, and their kids, Luke, Sayer and Jordan; and sisters, Jeanette Parnagian and her husband, Pete, and Joanne Iknoian.
“I always laughed and told John he was the first Armenian to ever make the National Finals,” Rodriguez said. “And I’ve never known another one. John was just such a competitor in everything he did. He never panicked, and he was so cool under pressure. He’s the one that kept pressing the fuel pump button from over in the co-pilot’s seat on that plane when I thought we were going down. John knew more than that other pilot did. Ferguson and Brock were worn out, and never woke up. They may never have if not for Paboojian. You might say John saved our lives.”
Graveside service for lifelong Fowler resident John Paboojian Jr. will be at Fowler Cemetery (8523 S. Fowler Ave., Fowler, California 93625) on Monday, March 23 at 11 a.m.
Rest in peace, Poojie.