Posted with permission from the Snider Collection
Now for the action! This is a very dramatic photograph labelled...
"Sweden taking header with Floyd Stilling. " I certainly bet the cowboy, Floyd felt the pain!
Photograph taken at the Sumas Roundup, circa 1926.
According to an interview published in the Los Angeles Times, Feb 21. 1988:
Floyd was born about October 11, 1904. Floyd Stilling ran away from home from Pullman, WA at the age of 13 to ride the rodeos. He broke horses for the United State Army during World War One. He then spent his teenage years riding in the T. O. Burroughs Wild West Show touring the country.
Floyd had a girlfriend name Louise Hartwig who also rode in the rodeos. At one rodeo he saddled her bronco for her and then left the chute without watching her ride. He came back later to find that she was trampled to death during her ride.
In 1926 Floyd was the bull riding champion at New York's Madison Square Garden and then in 1927 he won the saddle bronc championship in Chicago. Over the years he won numerous championships on the rodeo circuit. He was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1987.
In spite of many broken bones and a tough life, Floyd died April 20, 1995 at the age of 91. He is buried at the Old Trail Town Cemetery in Cody, Wyoming.
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