Who We Are

The Broken Arrow Round-Up Club was founded in 1956 by Isom “Smitty” Smith, Ned Sanders, Calvin McAnally, Ernest Pearce and R. B. Goodson. The five of them were sitting around one day at Smitty’s Western Store and decided to start a Round Up Club.

According to Smitty, they started it and it just “growed like topsy.” Everybody pitched in and worked together to build an arena. Ernest and Florence Pearce had two daughters that liked to ride, so he donated the use of five acres they owned around 91st & Lynn Lane as the site for the original Round Up Club. The club currently sits on 46 acres just east of Oneta road where we have room to grow and develop.

Smitty said everyone was real easy to get along and work with in those days. They started having rodeos, roping, horseshows and cutting shows back then and quite frankly we have not changed much since then. We are still doing the same thing today with the addition of barrel racing and team penning.

Bob Gainer, a native of Broken Arrow, announced his first rodeo in Broken Arrow and went on to announce at some of the rodeo finals. His wife, Dee, used to sit on the floor and take entries and pay the cowboys off. His son, Bud, was the rodeo clown and bullfighter and was very highly thought of in Broken Arrow. Bud lost his life in Vietnam and the Broken Arrow Round-Up Club held a Memorial Rodeo in his honor for some 12 years after that. Each year, the RUC donated its portion of the proceeds from the gate to some charitable organization.

Smitty, a charter member of the Broken Arrow Round-Up Club, served as the Club’s first Treasurer for six years under R. B. Goodson who served as President. We still operate the RUC as a non-profit organization under virtually the same set of by-laws that were drawn up by our founding fathers. Our by-laws describe us as a riding and roping club with the goal of teaching all people to ride and rope for their enjoyment.

Our membership over the years has fluctuated from 50 to 150 member families. We hold family playdays that are well attended. Both the children and their parents come and compete in four events. We accumulate points on each person and at the end of the year we have an Awards Banquet where we pass out buckles to our hi-point winners and various other prizes to our other participants. It’s amazing to see how much the youth improve their riding skills over the playday season.

We’ve also held riding, roping, barrel racing and team penning clinics. These clinics cover something for the beginner as well as the advanced rider. We are especially interested in teaching the children how to ride safely and correctly. We trail ride with our horses and participate in local parades.

Our Club plays an integral part in the Rooster Days celebration with a rodeo which is held each year in Broken Arrow the 1st weekend in May. This year’s 2022 Rooster Days Rodeo marked our 63rd annual event. Our rodeo is one of the largest local rodeos in this part of Oklahoma with thousands of people in attendance. It has been praised by locals and out-of-towners alike as second to none, and just seems to grow bigger and better every year. Rice Rodeo Company of Beggs, OK has Supplied quality stock for over 40 of those 64 years. With the passing of Carl Rice in 2009 we have had to venture out to other stock contractors such as G-Money Rodeo Co. and Big Horn Rodeo Company.

We sponsor a Queen, Princess and Sweetheart contest for our rodeo each year. One of our former Queens, Georgianne Abdo Gilliam, came away from the International Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City with the highest of honors — the title of Miss Rodeo USA for the 2002 calendar year.  Two other former Queens of the
BARUC, Vinessa Perry and Allison Campbell, went on to win the Miss Rodeo Oklahoma title in 2000 and 2005, respectively.   Former Princess, Dani Biadasz, won the title of Miss Rodeo Oklahoma Teen 2004.  

The sport of rodeo has become so competitive that if the team ropers can’t do their thing in 6 seconds or less, they often won’t place in the money. The good bulldoggers will lay a steer down in under 4 seconds; and the barrel racers complete their cloverleaf patterns in 16 to 18 seconds depending on the size of the pattern.  Oklahoma is “cowboy and horse country” and many of our fellow statesmen/women are veterans of the pro-rodeo circuit.

We’ve held horseshows at our arena where a nice saddle was given away to the hi-point person of the day. We’ve hosted cutting shows which lasted 10 hours or more where some of the most expensive horses that will ever grace our arena competed. It was quite a thrill for us to watch those fine horses work. Most all events we hold at the Club are free to the public or very modestly priced.

Our arena is located ½ mile south of Highway 51 on Oneta Road, across the street
from the Elks Lodge. We have been at our present location since 1996.
Bill Hash, BARUC member and former Bareback Bronc IPRA, ACRA and
MSRA champion, was the last cowboy to buck out at our old arena location and
the first cowboy to buck out at our new arena.

For more information on the Club or any of its activities visit our Contact Us tab!

What We’ve Achieved