The sport of rodeo attracts stars with big personalities and one of the sport’s biggest stars in the ‘80s was Lane Frost.
His father worked on the rodeo circuit and even at the age of 5, it was evident that lane was heading in the same direction, riding dairy calves as if he was already in the world championships.
The first of a long list of trophies started coming in from the age of 10 in “Little Buckaroos” tournaments. When his family moved from Utah to Oklahoma he entered the National High School Bull Riding competition in 1981 and took down the title.
The following year he became the Bull Riding Champion of the first Youth National Finals and decided to turn professional soon after and joining the PRCA. He was now riding full-time, making a name for himself. And then he achieved something that no other rider had done in 309 failed attempts.
Red Rock was a beast of a bull that had thrown every rider to the ground with its sheer power and then, rather than trying to stomp them into the ground afterward, he would just saunter back to the chute after taking a victory lap, job done. Many tried a second time to ride the mountain of muscle, none succeeded, literally struggling to walk out of the ring after their bone-jarring fall and nursing their bruises for weeks.
Even Lane Frost failed in his first try at mastering this beast, and that failure cost him the World Championship title in 1986. Red Rock himself was now a legend, undefeated, was named the Bucking Bull of the Year in 1987 and was tipped to be the only bull never to have been ridden for the full 8 seconds.
That same year Lane Frost became the PRCA World Bull Riding Champion at the age of 24.
The Challenge of the Champions was dreamed up by the owner of Red Rock in 1988 to pit the two champions against each other, man against beast, over 7 showdown competitions in different rodeos. And the beast was tamed, not all 7 times, but Lane managed to hold on for the full 8 seconds for 4 bone-jarring rides.
It was a huge success with Red Rock going into retirement and Lane Frost continuing to build his legacy, competing in the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo competition in 1989 the following year.
During the competition, he completed a successful injury-free ride that had the crowd on their feet. There was nothing unusual about his dismount, one that he had done thousands of times across his career from bulls a lot meaner than the one he had ridden that day. What happened next came as a surprise to all, and was to shock the rodeo world.
The 1987 World Bull Riding Champion landed on his knees, was ready to stand and acknowledge the roar of the crowd, when the bull, Takin Care of Business, almost casually flicked its head in his direction. The weight of the bull easily exceeded 1,200 pounds and the blow from its horns, unfortunately, caught Frost at a bad angle, breaking several of his ribs.
Frost still managed valiantly to get to his feet, raised his arms to the cheering crowd, staggered a few steps away from the bull, then collapsed in agony. The fall exacerbated the injury even further, his broken ribs fatally puncturing his heart and lungs. He was rushed to the Memorial Hospital, but the injuries he had sustained were too severe to be repaired.
The recorded time of Lane Frost’s death, at the age of 25, was 3.59 pm, July 30, 1989.
