Cheyenne Frontier Days has dedicated the rodeo to the late great Chris LeDoux, who will forever be remembered as one of Wyoming’s favorite cowboys and a son of Cheyenne.
LeDoux may be best known to most of us for his music, but in Cheyenne, Wyoming, he’s also remembered as a bronc rider, and he has become a symbol of Cheyenne Frontier Days, a rodeo legend.
It was when his family moved to Cheyenne from Texas that LeDoux caught the bronc riding bug, and he dreamed of one day competing at the historic Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo.
“Probably ’68 was the first year I was able to enter it, and I think I missed one horse out and got thrown off the other,” LeDoux said. “The next year I came back and placed in the go-round, on Chicken Fry, nice horse. And then the guys that had all those gold buckles were saying, ‘W ride, Chris,’ and I didn’t even realize they knew who I was or existed. So yeah, it was kind of like all of the sudden I was born, right here in Cheyenne.”
LeDoux is the only musician (in addition now to Chancey Williams) who has ever both competed and played live in concert at Cheyenne Frontier Days.
“It was his Grand Ole Opry,” says his son Beau LeDoux, “and nothing was better than Cheyenne.”
