Expected Release Date:  2024

Rodeo Cowboy:  Fred E.H. Alvord, Rodeo, and Living the Western Life, 1898-1964

Fred Alvord was born in 1898 on a ranch outside Baird, Callahan County Texas.  Growing up on the Alvord Ranch taught Fred Alvord self discipline and the basics of working cattle and horses.

In 1919 Alvord entered his first rodeo and found that he was good enough to win money and encouraged him to make rodeo his career.  In 1924 Alvord sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with Tex Austin’s rodeo show, bound for Wembley Park in London.

Alvord worked for Colonel W.T. Johnson’s World’s Championship rodeo in the late 1920s and on into the 1930s.  Later he worked for Everett Colborn after Colborn bought Johnson’s rodeo. During those years, Alvord worked as arena secretary and competed in the rodeos.  He worked all the big shows and won many saddles and buckles during that time.

In the years that followed, Alvord purchased various businesses and properties associated with the stockyards and rodeo.  By the 1960s he was working for Six Flags Over Texas, still involved in livestock and western shows for the public.