The Miss Rodeo USA Association has a vibrant history and a visionary future. Years ago, a group of cowboys recognized the need to have a beautiful representative promote the sport of rodeo across the country. Throughout the years, both rodeo and the pageant have changed, but the centerpiece of both rests in the desire to share our rodeo lifestyle with the people of our country. The love of rodeo is in our blood and it is what keeps us traveling down the road.
After a recent re-structure of the Miss Rodeo USA Association, our Executive Board now consists of over 100 years’ combined experience working with Miss Rodeo USA and the International Pro Rodeo Association. This group of men and women are dedicated to using this combined experience to grow the National Pageant and the organization in years to come.
Miss Rodeo USA is unique in that you do not have to win a state title to participate in our National Pageant. Participants may represent organizations such as a local or state rodeo, a rodeo sponsor, a stock contractor, a county fair, or any similar organization. We encourage participants who want to become Miss Rodeo USA to be involved with the backbone (the five C’s) of the IPRA: its’ cowboys, cowgirls, contractors, committees, and companions (our supporters and sponsors). By doing so, they become familiar with the people she desires to represent. It changes a participant’s perspective on the life and obligations of Miss Rodeo USA.
Miss Rodeo USA, like the IPRA, is blessed with a wonderful range of sponsors. We seek to find the perfect blend of sponsors and sponsorship products to help promote the sponsor, the pageant, the sport of rodeo, and the western way of life. It is our goal to give more than we receive in return for the generosity of our sponsors.
To the sponsors, stock contractors, and rodeo committees across the country that have opened their communities to Miss Rodeo USA, we are very appreciative. Your decision to join with the Miss Rodeo USA Association not only helps promote your event, product, or company, but adds to the wonderful journey of becoming Miss Rodeo USA. You are creating memories that last a lifetime.
There is an old saying that sums up what being Miss Rodeo USA is all about to me. “Life is not a having and a getting, but a being and a becoming.” Early in 1989, I “had” the crown and I “got” the title that went with it. However, as I traveled throughout the year, and as many Miss Rodeo USA’s have both before and after me, I realized that it was somewhere through that journey that I “became” Miss Rodeo USA. It is so much more than a title. It’s petting wild buffalo in New York, it’s holding the hand of a Vietnam War Veteran in Tennessee, it’s reading to a burn victim in Boston, and it’s rolling down the hill in a clown barrel in Nebraska. It’s calling on former titleholders at four in the morning when you are road-weary and homesick. It’s carrying Old Glory into the arena for the last time at the IFR, riding Pam Treadway’s beautiful Buckwheat, as Dan Dailey, Clarence LeBlanc, Jack Wiseman, Speed Williams, Terry Don West, Randy Wells, Justin Rowe, and countless other IPRA rodeo legends walk by and slap you on the leg with a knowing smile. Friendships were forged and my life was changed forever.
I welcome you to join our IPRA/Miss Rodeo USA family. Whether you are a participant, parent, sponsor, committee, contractor, or contestant, our door is open. I wish you well on your journey to being and becoming.
Lisa Watson Lance