Published: May 08, 2008 09:57 am            

Burchett heads for Hall of Fame

Pryor roper honored by PRCA

A Mayes County Champion Cowboy will be remembered for generations to come. Shaun Burchett will be inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in July.

Burchett was touted as one of the most talented steer ropers in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1981 when he was just 17. A short two years later he made his first trip to the National Finals Steer Roping. He twice won Reserve World Champion in 1985 and 1986, behind ProRodeo Hall of Famer Jim Davis. In 1987 he won the World, a feat he would accomplish again in 1988. He beat Davis to do it.

Burchett roped in nine consecutive National Finals Steer Ropings from 1983 to 1991. The last three trips to the finals were after losing his spleen when his truck collided with a train. In fact, he broke the NFSR record with a 9.8-second run in 1990. He was the first steer roper ever to post a time under 9 seconds with runs of 8.5 and 8.9 in 1987.

“He was left handed,” Randy Burchett, Shaun’s father, said. “I made him learn to rope right handed. He did all the other stuff, played baseball, shot a gun, left handed.

“Steer roping is not a left handed world. You’d be runnin’ into the fence all time.”

Shaun had the best possible environment to become a roper. Randy, a steer roper himself who won Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo in 1970, was a built in teacher.

“Oh I don’t know, he started riding in diapers, I guess,” Randy said.

“He and Leon Stipes roped together all through grade school and high school, junior rodeos. They team roped and roped calves.

“I guess I was part of the tutor.”

Many steer ropers, including Oklahoma Hall of Famer Shoat Webster, stayed at the Burchett home during the summer.

In fact, Webster provided horses that became Shaun’s partners, including “a couple of Silent Devil horses and a big Sugar Bars horse that had a Hancock mama.”

But the main mount for Shaun was Randy’s horse Rifle.

“He won all his championships on him,” Randy said.

Rifle was so named because he came from Rifle, Colo. He was not registered and his breeding was unknown.

“I traded for him with H.L. Todd,” Randy said. “We was at Laramie, Wyo., one time and we were betting on who had the sorriest horse. I knew mine was sorrier than his so I gave him a little boot and we traded.”

Rifle did not turn out to be sorry.

“He was tough,” Randy said. “It took a long time. You had to show it to him over and over. But we finally got him conquered.”

Randy said Shaun not only wanted to learn, he was willing to practice.

“He wouldn’t tie down 50 steers a day, but he’d break loose from that many. He’d do that from six head of horses.

“I really thought he was a better calf roper, but he wanted to rope steers. And steer ropers are the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet. It’s a gentleman’s sport.

“Shaun was competitive and he liked pressure. He didn’t like to win second. He’d say ‘who remembers who won second?’”

Shaun’s career was cut short when he died in a single-vehicle accident in Sherman, Texas in 1992. He was 28 years old.

But the PRCA is immortalizing Shaun in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Randy could not be more proud. He will be inducted with Clarksville, Ark., team roper Bobby Hurley; six time All Around Champion Paul Tierney from Oral, S.D. and saddle bronc rider Tom Reeves of Ranger, Texas.

“I’m really proud of him. That made it for me,” Randy said.

        

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