Bill Pickett, the world’s first black cowboy and rodeo star, invented the technique of bulldogging. He was born in Texas to former slaves, started a horse-running service, and worked with Buffalo Bill Cody. Pickett died at 61 from a horse kick and is honored in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.
Bill Pickett invented the technique of bulldogging, or steer wrestling, and was known as the world’s first black cowboy and rodeo star. She was actually a combination of black, white, and Native American Cherokee. Bill Pickett is said to have gotten the idea for bulldogging from observing herding breeds of bulldogs handling steers.
Bill Pickett’s steer grappling method involves a mounted cowboy jumping onto the steer and forcing the steer’s neck back by twisting it. Then the cowboys would bite the steer’s lips and eventually bring the steer to the ground. Pickett demonstrated the technique to him in rodeo shows and a few movies and was called The Dusky Demon.
William Picket was born December 5, 1870 in Travis County, Texas. He was the first of 13 children born to Thomas Jefferson and Mary Virginia Elizabeth Pickett, both former slaves. By the time Bill was 18, the family had moved to Taylor, Texas, and Bill started a horse-running service with his brothers called the Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders Association. Bill Picket had also joined the National Guard and was a deacon at his Baptist church. He was 20 when he married Maggie Turner, a former slave and daughter of a white plantation owner, and they had nine children.
At one time, Will Rogers and Tom Mix were Bill Pickett’s assistants at his rodeo shows. Bill began leading wrestling for entertainment purposes in 1904 and was sometimes known as The Bulldogger and The Dusky Demon. He worked with Buffalo Bill Cody and the 101 Ranch Show that Cody had started in 1883. Pickett brought bulldogging to the show with the help of his horse, Spradley.
In 1993, Bill Pickett became the first black man whose achievements were honored in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma. During most of the years Pickett was involved in rodeo shows blacks were not allowed to enter rodeo competitions with whites. Sometimes Bill Pickett was able to compete in rodeos by registering as a Native American. In 1994, a US postage stamp was released honoring Bill Pickett, but one of his brothers, Ben, was actually featured on the stamp for the first time before the error was corrected.
Bill Pickett died at age 61 on April 2, 1932 at 101 Ranch in Oklahoma. A horse he was pulling gave him a fatal kick in the head. Pickett’s name lives on in the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo circuit and Pickett Elementary School in Georgetown, Texas.
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