Eloise Fox Hastings…..”The
nerviest cowgirl” as quoted by the announcer, Foghorn Clancy, at her first
rodeo. I suppose that is why when
she was a little girl her parents sent her away to a convent school. But, being
a rebel she ran away from the convent and joined the Irwin Brother’s Wild West
Show. While at the Wild West Show she met Mike Hastings.
Mike Hastings was a bulldogger
(steer wrestler) for the Irwin Brother’s Wild West Show. Mike taught Fox how to
bulldog and the basics of the rodeo competition. At the age of 16 Fox married
Mike Hastings and began her bulldogging and rodeo career.
At the start of her career with
Irwin Brother’s Wild West Show, Fox performed trick, bronc riding, and relay
racing. But, in 1924 at the Forth Worth Texas Rodeo Fox debuted her bulldogging
talents. The announcer of the Rodeo and Fox’s manger, Foghorn Clancy, described
the condition of the arena “as muddy as a hog wallow”. Fox set a record time
that day of 17 seconds.
This was just the beginning of
her famous bulldogging career. Fox broke records wherever she went and her
charisma and athletic ability brought her praise throughout her career. In
Houston, at the Cattlemen’s Convention Fox was named the most outstanding act
of the entire Texas Rodeo. Fox continued to compete in rodeos and perform in
the Wild West Shows for about 10 years.
That little girl with the rebel
spirit who was sent to a convent was known as the redheaded feminine daredevil
of the arena. Fox’s cowgirl spirit, enthusiasm for bulldogging and her love of
the competition made Fox the perfect candidate for the Rodeo Hall of Fame.
Eloise Fox Hastings was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1987.
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