Tornado

Tornado was a bucking bull who was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and the Bull Riding Hall of Fame. He went to the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) at least four times. He was voted Bucking Bull of the NFR four times consecutively from 1962 to 1965. Owned by rodeo champion Jim Shoulders, Tornado was named the "meanest bull alive" at the NFR four times. Tornado is best known for his matchup with ProRodeo Hall of Fame bull rider, Freckles Brown, which is most often referred to as "The Ride." It was Brown who, in 1967, broke Tornado's undefeated streak of 220 buckoffs in six years. Tornado, Brown, and Shoulders all have been recorded in The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture maintained online by the Oklahoma Historical Society. Background Tornado was born in 1957 in Texas. The cowboy, bull rider and stock contractor Jim Shoulders, of Henryetta, Oklahoma, owned and managed the bull; Shoulders actually maintained several quality bucking stock, which included the other "weather" bulls Cyclone, Hurricane, and Twister. According to Frank Boggs, an Oklahoman sports writer and columnist, Shoulders bought Tornado in South Texas when the bull was three years old. Tornado was a Brahma-Hereford crossbred bull, known as a Braford that generally weighed 1,850 pounds. He is described as red with a white face. Tornado first started bucking in Mesquite, Texas, in 1960. Career From Tornado's first rodeo in Mesquite, Texas, in 1960 through to the NFR in December 1967, he was undefeated, bucking off the toughest cowboys. There was a sign outside his pen at Shoulder's ranch in Henryetta: "Warning: Enter at Your Own Risk." Shoulders declared that outside of the arena Tornado was tame, and he "often walked up to Tornado in the pasture to pet him or feed him grass". However, in the arena, "Tornado transformed into a holy terror". Tornado bucked on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (formerly the Rodeo Cowboys Association). Tornado qualified for the NFR every year from 1962 through 1966 and perhaps more. For those four years, he was the top-ranked bull on the bucking-stock list. For the first 220 attempts to ride him for a qualified ride, he remained undefeated. In addition to typical bucking abilities such as jumping, kicking, and spinning, Tornado also possessed something labeled "clown-and-barrel fighting ability." His name came from his ability to quickly alter the direction of his spin.