Rob Smets is a five-time World Champion bullfighter and one person that he says he went full circle with was fellow Hall of Famer Miles Hare.
Smets Pro Card was signed for at the San Jose Firefighters Rodeo and he continued to work those rodeos earning him a spot to fight at the Cow Palace in 1978. He went on to win that fight. That next year, in 1979, Smets and Hare worked their first rodeo together in Munroe, Louisiana and it was not their best work.
“We went from almost being fist city to a couple of years later we work the Fort Worth Stock Show. Thirteen performances into it, after us going round and round a little bit, Miles, I remember looking over at Miles and going will you jump this son of a gun and get us out of here? Instead of being who was worried about selling it, we kind of decided we’re alright,” Smets said.
From there, Smets went on a spree of finishing second and third behind Hare. In 1983, Smets had thought he had enough of finishing second to Hare and was going home. It was Hare who brought Smets back to the fundamentals that would win him his first World Championship in Oklahoma City in 1983.
“The biggest thing that I can attribute to my good buddy, Miles Hare, is that he’s got two Gold Buckles and I’ve got five but he’s responsible for all seven of them,” Smets said.
The two formed a bond, a brotherhood that Smets says is second to none. They would go on to be Co-Champions of the Wrangler Bullfights in 1988 and fight the National Finals Rodeo together from 1989-1991. Now, they host schools that some of rodeo’s top bull fighters have attended.
