Our booming team roping industry scored a triumphant trifecta Monday, April 8, when the ProRodeo Hall of Fame announced that its Class of 2024 includes three greats in 21-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo team roper J.D. Yates, 1968 World Champion Team Roper Art Arnold and Bob Feist.
Yates will be recognized as a rodeo notable; Arnold in the team roping category; and Feist—aka “The Godfather of Team Roping”—will receive the Ken Stemler Pioneer Award during this summer’s July 13 induction ceremonies in Colorado Springs.
Yates, 63, became the youngest NFR qualifier of all time when he roped behind his dad, Dick, at the 1975 NFR at only 15 years, 4 months of age. Yates and Yates roped at 13 of J.D.’s 21 NFRs, which include 19 as a heeler and two heading. He also qualified for 11 National Finals Steer Ropings. Yates won the 2002 NFR average heading for Bobby Harris. Beyond the rodeo arena, J.D. won the 2010 BFI heading for his cousin Jay Wadhams, whom he also roped with at the NFR.
“This one here was a big surprise,” J.D. said of April 8’s induction-news call. “It’s pretty amazing, really. It makes all those all-night drives, fast times and no times all worth the trip. I put my heart and soul into the love of the sport and this event. I’ll love it ’til the day I die.”
Learn from JD Yates at Roping.com
Momma Jan Yates is watching from Heaven now, but for years the Yates family ruled the rodeo road as a unit.
“The greatest year for me was in 1984, when my sister (Kelly) and my dad and I all made it,” J.D. said. “That’s an accomplishment no other family has, and one I’m very proud of. To make 14 of my 21 NFRs with family—13 with my dad, and one with my cousin—is pretty special to me, too.
“We still rope as a family. My sister and I still love to go compete. I’ve had a lot of years competing with my dad and son, and sometimes against them. But when we walk out of the arena, we are united as a family. That’s the accomplishment I’m most proud of.”
This is shaping up to be a spectacularly special year for Colorado-native Yates, as he’ll also be inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame this fall. Renowned and recognized as a supreme horseman, J.D.’s won 47 American Quarter Horse Association world championships.
Arizona’s Arnold is one of the team roping pioneers who paved the way for where team roping is today. He, too, is thrilled by this unexpected recognition.
“This means a lot, because there are not a lot of people who get to be (inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame),” Arnold said. “It took a lot of practice, trying to perfect techniques and just watching and learning from guys who did it well.”
Rounding out the rest of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame Class of 2024 is bareback riding legend Kaycee Feild, late World Champion Bull Rider Blue Stone, World Champion Barrel Racers Marlene McRae and Jeana Day, stock contractor Sammy Andrews, bullfighter Darrell Diefenbach, Burns Rodeo Company’s bull Mr. T and the Tri-State Rodeo in Fort Madison, Iowa.
—TRJ—
