Don Gay

Bull Riding • Inducted 1979

Don Gay won four consecutive world championships, 1974-77, the PRCA Season Championship 1976-78, and then followed with another three consecutive world championships, 1979-81. Since he won his last world crown in 1984, Gay has held the record with eight bull riding world titles. Experts in the sport have called him the greatest bull rider of all time. Gay, born Sept. 18, 1953, in Mesquite, Texas, grew up in a rodeo family, son of PRCA stock contractor, Neal Gay. He began riding steers at age 6 and had an association permit before finishing high school. Gay holds the record for the third highest marked ride in the history of professional rodeo, earning 97 points on the famous RSC bull Oscar at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1977. Today, Gay provides color commentary on professional rodeo.

World Championships: 8

Bull Riding: 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1984

PRCA Season Championships: 3

Bull Riding: 1976, 1977, 1978

National Finals Rodeo Average Champion

Bull Riding: 1976

RAM Circuit Year-End Champion

Texas Circuit:

Bull Riding: 1975, 1976, 1978

Legend of ProRodeo

2013

Born: September 18, 1953 in Mesquite, Texas

Black Hills Roundup / Belle Fourche, SD
Bull Riding: 1977, 1982

Buffalo Bill Rodeo / North Platte, NE
Bull Riding: 1973

Cheyenne Frontier Days / Cheyenne, WY
Bull Riding: 1977

Deadwood Days of ’76 Rodeo / Deadwood, SD
All-Around: 1975
Bull Riding: 1980

Ellensburg Rodeo / Ellensburg, WA
Bull Riding: 1980

Grand National Stock Show & Rodeo / San Francisco, CA
Bull Riding: 1975, 1977

La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Rodeo / Tucson, AZ
Bull Riding: 1984

National Western Stock Show & Rodeo / Denver, CO
All-Around: 1975
Bull Riding: 1975, 1980

Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo / Ogden, UT
Bull Riding: 1974

Red Bluff Round-Up / Red Bluff, CA
Bull Riding: 1973, 1979, 1982

Reno Rodeo / Reno, NV
Bull Riding: 1978

San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo / San Antonio, TX
Bull Riding: 1976

Snake River Stampede / Nampa, ID
All-Around: 1977
Bull Riding: 1974, 1977

World’s Oldest Rodeo Prescott Frontier Days / Prescott, AZ
Bull Riding: 1978