PAGE 8 ROPERS SPORTS NEWS JULY-AUGUST 2024 End Of An Era... From Page 6 In addition to being honored at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in 2024, Feist also was inducted this year into the Reno Rodeo Hall of Fame and Bishop Mule Days Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2015. None of this would have been possible without hard-working people like Steph Anderson, left, and Jenny Vasquez, right. – Photo by Ann Ishii berta and Jack, late team roping buddy Buzz MacKerracher’s late wife, Arlene, was Feist’s first hired help. “In the early days, I would go to the Galt Herald with a lot of my writings on a napkin,” Feist said. “I got with the owner, and he would put it into newspaper form and they’d roll a copy off the press for me to proof. A typical day at the office would be Arlene and I in their three-room house, sitting by the woodstove going over stories and ads.” The second issue of the RSN doubled in size to eight pages, and after writing names and addresses on the front page with a pen awhile, Feist thought he was really moving up in the world when he bought an old stenciling machine from the RCA. After that—back when “there weren’t zip codes as we know them today,” according to Feist—Mom Alberta handled the RSN addressing using that machine. Feist met fellow roper Butch Morgan in his roping travels to Colorado, and signed Morgan up to sell RSN subscriptions. “Butch and (his wife) Charlene were making trophies and ribbons in their house, so selling Ropers Sports News subscriptions was a good side job,” Feist said. “He got half of every $3 subscription he sold, so I gave him $1.50 for each one.” Feist hired wind-beneathhis-wings woman Anderson in 1975. He had no way of knowing it then, but it’s a move that proved beyond brilliant as he grew his prized paper and launched the BFI. As general manager, Steph’s been half the heartbeat of this entire operation. “Buzz MacKerracher and Bud Corwin mentioned that this local girl from Lodi who liked to team rope was out of college and ready to go to work,” Feist remembers of his lucky day. “In the beginning, my mom and dad were gracious enough to let me start it all on the ranch and turn the old milk house into a little office. We built a 10-by10-foot room, which was just big enough for two desks for Steph and me. The office today is in what used to be part of the shops on the ranch, and we’re still a mom-and-pop shop, just like when mom used to answer the phones.” If there’s been one pivotal person in the success of Ropers Sports News and the building of the BFI besides Bob, that’d be Steph. After graduating from Lodi High, she attended San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton, then rodeoed for Cal Poly as an animal science major. Steph served stints at Farm Supply Company and in an administrative position at Goehring Meats before landing her job of a lifetime as leading lady at Ropers Sports News. “Bob hired me back before the paper was making any money, so he could go work for Ron Hognestad and his dad, Barney, for their Hogue Construction up in Santa Rosa,” said Anderson, who lives with her fellow team roper husband, Gus, in nearby Thornton. “I’ve never had a child, so Ropers Sports News and the BFI have kind of been my babies. Watching the evolution of team roping and how far it’s come has been amazing. “Bob’s been like a big brother to me. It’s been a great partnership, and we’ve always had each other’s back. We make a great team, and just as he was the header and I was the heeler when we used to rope together, the same has gone for business. Bob lays the foundation, and I take the lead and finish building the project.” Steph has always handily held down the fort at RSN HQ, which has allowed Bob to leave the reins in capable hands while out traveling the world, promoting the sport, announcing rodeos, skiing, golfing and fishing. Bob and Steph have built longtime partnerships and friendships across all association lines in the roping world, and RSN has proudly served as the official publication of several organizations, including American Cowboys Team Roping Association (ACTRA), California Shoot-Outs, Women’s Team Roping Association (WTRA) and Northern California Junior Rodeo Association (NCJRA) over the years. Ropers Sports News earned its reputation as a trusted, independent voice with a heavy emphasis on team roping and barrel racing, and welcomed industry-wide advertisers and results. It’s a pretty Western workplace where you can bring your horses and dogs to work, and take breaks roping down at the arena, riding a bike around the ranch or walking those dogs down by the river. Bob, Steph and crew have bonded over all those activities and more. Other key players on the tight-knit Team RSN over the years have included Shirl Woodson, Julie Sell, Rayanne Engel-Currin, Mary Robertson, sisters Taryn Krantz-Castodio and Erica Krantz, and Jenny Vasquez, who rides out with Steph at this chapter’s end. It’s always felt like family at Ropers Sports News, and this I know firsthand. When I rodeoed for Cal Poly, I went to my other mother JoAnn Switzer’s world-famous hub of a home on Foothill Boulevard in San Luis Obispo to eat before the short round early in my college career. Bob Feist, who was in town to announce Poly Royal, and I reached her doorstep at the same time, so we stopped to visit a minute. That casual little chat kick-started my career writing cowboy stories. I wrote my very first story on an electric typewriter, and mailed it to Steph, who had to retype it at her end in Lodi. I started writing about the BFI all the way back then also, and there’s no place I’d have rather been than with my cowboy friends and RSN/BFI family all these years. Before such industry leaders as Spin to Win, Super Looper and now The Team Roping Journal came along, some suggested Feist upgrade from a black-and-white newspaper to a four-color, glossy magazine. “I considered it, but Ropers Sports News has always been about doing a service for the roping community, and though we now have readers all over the world, we decided to stay on our own track and keep catering to our core on the West Coast,” Feist said. “I commend all the other publications. They’ve definitely helped the sport, and I think that’s great. I’ve always welcomed people into the industry. That’s how you grow any sport, and I’m all about promoting team roping. “I never thought the paper would be around this long, but it’s been a godsend. Thank goodness for great employees, because they carried the load when I was gone working on the BFI and announcing rodeos. Stephanie’s been phenomenal. She loves it like I do, and she learned the publishing business on the job, like I did. Neither of us knew how to turn on a computer when they first came out. We’ve come a long way.” That’s a fact. But this is one of those cases when not changing much is a good thing. “Only through a great volume of people showing interest in our sport will we help its purses and prize money grow into a more encouraging factor for young cowboys coming along to pursue this sport as a profession and not just something to do until something more exciting comes along,” Feist wrote 50 years ago, as he set out to change the team roping world for the better. Bob Feist has earned his place on the Who’s Who of Team Roping list, and Ropers Sports News and the BFI are just two of the reasons why. His impressive announcing resume is another. Feist has called the action at some of the sport’s most prestigious events, including the National Finals Rodeo, National Finals Steer Roping, Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, California Rodeo Salinas, Reno Rodeo, Calgary Stampede, PBR World Finals and Timed Event Championship at the Lazy E. “When it’s all said and done, I would like them to say that I had a vision,” Feist said. “Of course, I wanted whatever I worked on to be a success. Everyone has to win for long-term success, and I felt that if I could get the Ropers Sports News to be successful for me and help the sport, that was going to be a win for all. I was very blessed to have fun and build some success doing what I love. “If team roping hadn’t gone the way it went and come along as it has, I don’t think the rodeo world would be nearly as progressive as it is today. I know that’s hard to convince some people of, but I believe it to be true. Team roping more than pays its own way. More people team rope than any other event in rodeo—by a wide margin. When I look back, I’m humbled and honored to have helped the Western industry more than anything. I’ve been good to the Western industry, and the Western industry has been good to me.” FRI., AUG 23rd #8 Handicap Pick & Draw .............4 for $50 Pick One, Draw One ..................for $100 Pick Two, Draw Two...................for $200 Pick Three, Draw Three .............for $300 35% Cattle • We Have The Right To Refuse Any Entry $1,000 TO HIGH MONEY WINNER! SKYLINE BUCKLES TO AVERAGE WINNERS! SKYLINE VAQUERO SILVER STIRRUPS TO 2ND IN AVG. Sponsored By Charlene & H.P. 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