At one time I enjoyed attending rodeos and became a fan of Mandan’s famous bucking bull, Little Yellow Jacket. The Berger family from Mandan raised him, and with a little rodeo experience, he became a three-time Professional Bull Riders World Champion Bull in 2002, ’03, and ’04. Almost 84% of his would-be riders were thrown from his back to land in the dirt with an average buck off time of 2.66 seconds.
A famous contest featuring Little Yellow Jacket occurred in April, 2003 at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs when a champion rider named Chris Shivers tried riding him for a $1,000,000 prize. He lasted less than two seconds.
We watched the bull compete for the last time in North Dakota in 2005 at a highly-promoted rodeo with among others my daughter-in-law who had never attended such an event, but who unfortunately couldn’t get into it. Maybe it was baby Lucas whom she was soon expecting that swayed her attention.
Little Yellow Jacket earned induction into the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2006 with the appellation of being the “most famous bull in the world.” He died in September, 2011 at the age of fifteen. I bought the model from the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs and like to look at it up there on a shelf.
