Riley O’Rourke has found a honey hole with the Will Rogers Stampede in Claremore, Oklahoma. He leads the charge for the Clem McSpadden Tub Handle Classic, the richest steer roping rodeo in Oklahoma, after winning that championship each of the past two years. He is also the 2025 Steer Roping Rookie of the Year and the reserve world titlist.
(PHOTO BY ROBBY FREEMAN)

 

CLAREMORE, Okla. – Most professional cowboys have a place that fits them better than most of the others. In fishing terms, they’re honey holes.

RCB Bank in Stampede Park at Claremore is such a place for steer roping phenom Riley O’Rourke, the 2025 Rookie of the Year who finished the campaign second in the world standings. He has won a Will Rogers Stampede championship each of the past three seasons, collecting $11,500 along the way.

“That’s about as close to a hometown rodeo as I get,” said O’Rourke, 21, of Skiatook, Oklahoma, a 40-minute drive west of the arena. “I won the all-around the first year (2023), and then I won the steer roping the last two years.”

The rodeo – with paid performances set for 8 p.m. Friday, May 22-Sunday, May 24 – actually kicks off Thursday, May 21, with the Clem McSpadden Tub Handle Classic, the richest steer roping rodeo in Oklahoma with the seventh-largest payout in the country. This year’s event, set for 1 p.m., will feature the event’s top hands all chasing money that will feature $10,500 in local dollars, which are added to the contestants’ entry fees to make up the overall purse.

“In our part of the world, Clem was a legend as an announcer and an ambassador to rodeo who announced our rodeo for many years,” said David Petty, a longtime director of the rodeo. “Clem announced the Will Rogers Stampede for 62 years and loved steer roping, so about eight years ago, we decided to name our steer roping competition after him and feature it.”

Steer roping is older than the sport of rodeo. Ranchers were using the techniques of the event while caring for cattle long before the first documented competition took place nearly a century and a half ago. When a cowboy was alone on the range and had to treat a sick cow, he had to utilize his rope to lay the animal down and secure it so he could administer medicine.

The “World’s First Rodeo,” the West of the Pecos Rodeo in west Texas, is cited to have begun in 1883 when drovers from differing ranch operations began discussing who was the better roper. On July 4, the contest happened near the town courthouse. Steer roping remains an important part of the Pecos rodeo, as well as others in places like Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Pendleton, Oregon.

“Until I was 12, I lived in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, which they call the ‘Steer Roping Capital of the World,’ ” O’Rourke told the PRCA. “There wasn’t anybody who roped calves or anybody who team roped; everybody tripped steers. Since I started roping when I was 12 or 13, all I wanted to do was trip steers.”

Things have changed in time. He competed two years on his PRCA permit, a training ground for up-and-coming ProRodeo cowboys. He won Claremore’s all-around the first year, then won the Tub Handle Classic the second year. Adding a third title in Rogers County was just a nice dose of extra cheese on the supreme pizza that is O’Rourke’s early tenure as a steer roper.

Going into last season’s final round of his first qualification to the Clem McSpadden National Finals Steer Roping in Mulvane, Kansas, O’Rourke was in position to claim a world championship. He laid down a run of 9.1 seconds in the 10th round and put the pressure on the top dog in the fight, Cole Patterson.

“I had a lot of confidence until Cole tied one in 8.5,” O’Rourke said. “I knew it was close going into the last round, and I thought if I could win or split the round, I’d have a pretty good chance. For about 37 seconds, I really thought I had a chance, and then he nodded.

“The whole year was pretty good from beginning to end. I felt like I won pretty much everywhere I went, and it was a lot of fun.”

The Tub Handle Classic is not only a big-time stop for the world’s best steer ropers, but it also serves as a qualifier to the Ben Johnson Memorial Steer Roping, which takes place June 18-21 in Pawhuska. The limited-entry event will also feature the top two ropers in each of the three Claremore go-rounds as well as the top four in the aggregate that weren’t among the top 30 to qualify.

O’Rourke once untied calves during the Johnson roping, but he’s been part of the competition the last two and placed both times. He hopes to be among the elite by the time June rolls around, but he knows the Will Rogers Stampede is another avenue should the need arise.

“Everybody’s got a favorite rodeo like Cheyenne and what not,” he said. “Claremore is one of my favorites, just because I seem to win pretty good there.”