Thank You, Ropers Sports News By Kendra Santos
I will never stop thanking Ropers Sports News for giving me my start in rodeo journalism. I forever owe this pioneer team roping publication that blazed the trail for those that followed, and I’m far from alone. Our entire Western world owes the RSN a debt of great gratitude.
As always, it’s the people who’ve made the difference, and Bob Feist and his right-hand woman of the last 50 years, Stephanie Reynolds Anderson, are no exception. They took a chance on me as a college kid at Cal Poly with big dreams and a love of the rodeo game, and cut me the first check of my career—for $50 bucks.
As we now turn the page, and Boss Man Bob hands over the RSN reins to the next regime, let’s all recognize the true trailblazer that this mom-and-pop-shop team roping paper has been since that first folded black-and-white four-pager dated December 1968.
Feist had no formal training in the publishing business when he fired off that first issue.
“I was asked one time if I studied journalism or photography in school,” grins Feist, who served in the U.S. Army after finishing college. “The answer is no. I went to school in Oklahoma (Oklahoma State University, where he was a hotel and restaurant major), my parents lived in California and I had to write home for money. So I became quite the creative writer.
“I learned how to take pictures after I started the paper. I even learned how to develop them in makeshift hotel darkrooms. I had one of the very first living-quarters trailers, hauled those chemicals around with me, and blacked out the windows to develop my film. I did whatever it took to afford my roping and printing the paper, including selling Ropers Sports News caps, T-shirts and sweatshirts.”
The man I’ll always call “Boss” recognized a need to connect ropers with everything they needed to know, from where they could enter their next roping to roping news and results.
RSN’s Volume 1, Number 1 featured a Letter from Publisher Feist that read, “It is our intention through this publication to promote the sport of roping and rodeo. We hope that we can unite people holding the same interest throughout the Western states by making available to them advertising showing where the ropings are going to be held, and also by having a directory list of the roping arenas in operation.”
Remember, folks, these were the days long before the internet, cell phones and social media made staying in touch instant and easy. We all ran to our mailboxes every month. And Feist went at it from the global view of growing the entire Western industry.
“Many people today are looking for ways of relaxation to get away from the hustle bustle of our rapid way of life,” he said. “Sports like golf, boating, skiing and tennis have long been the favorites of our modern-day businessmen as their way out. We wanted to help attract newcomers to rodeo through making more people a part of the sport, including roping.”
This is the same visionary thinking before his time that gave Feist the idea for the ground-breaking Bob Feist Invitational Team Roping Classic, which has since been handed down to the capable hands of Ullman Peterson Events, but 47 years after the first one in 1977 in Chowchilla, California remains the world’s most tradition-rich, prestigious roping. They don’t call Bob Feist “The Godfather of Team Roping” for nothing.
There’s no telling how many copies of the RSN have landed on cowboy dashboards in this paper’s 56-year run, but I witnessed a very cool full-circle cowboy moment during this year’s 45th annual ProRodeo Hall of Fame induction festivities in Colorado Springs.
Feist, who this year was honored with the Ken Stemler Pioneer Award, was sitting under a shade tree on the patio with 1968 World Champion Team Roper Art Arnold, who was there to be inducted with the Hall’s Class of 2024. Bob whipped out a copy of that first-ever issue of the RSN, and there was Art, the lead photo on page 1 for winning the world alongside that year’s World Champion Calf Roper Glen Franklin.
“The Ropers Sports News was where we got our roping news, and we all looked forward to it showing up in our mailbox every month,” Arnold said. “Us ropers owe a lot to this guy right here.”
That’s a fact, but Feist wasn’t in it for the fame or fortune. Back when Oakdale, California was the Cowboy Capital of the World, Bob wanted to let ropers know when and where they could go rope, from Oakdale to Riverside, Cottonwood to Brentwood. Frustration also fueled his fire.
“I drove all the way up to a roping in Elko, Nevada that ended up not being there,” remembers Feist, who forged on to reach readers in 48 states, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France and Germany with roping news in the RSN. “Bob Tallman, Ron Hognestad and I had driven all that way, and it didn’t happen. It was disappointing that there was no roping, so I said, ‘Maybe I’ll print out a newsletter to let people know when and where ropings are going to be.’
“The big ropings back then were big average ropings in Oakdale, Riverside and Chowchilla, and they would mail out entry blanks to ropers based on the year before. I contacted some of those people and told them I was going to put out a new newsletter. I said, ‘If you let me have your mailing list, I’ll make sure those guys get a copy of this paper with your entry blank in it.’ I went around to some ropings, and put together a list of about 150 people to send that first issue to. We were basically telling people where they could go rope, then who won it afterwards.”
The Riverside Rancheros was the first roping to take Feist up on his offer. It’s funny now to hear him tell stories of how some human head duckers were concerned about the public reporting of roping results for tax reasons. The Godfather will never forget the paternal pride he had in his heart when he held that first copy of his baby in his hand.
“I picked up that first issue from the printer on a rainy night, and I felt like I had a copy of the Rolling Stone in my hand,” he said. “We addressed each copy by hand on the living room floor, put stamps on them one by one, and mailed them out.”
Fellow roper Perry Blagg was one of RSN’s first advertisers. Perry was famous for running out to the parking lot and selling ropes out of the trunk of his old Impala between runs. Cowboys referred to Blagg’s car as “a rope can on wheels.”
“The paper didn’t pay for itself for a long time,” Feist recalls. “We were the only team roping publication in the world back then, and my main mission was to encourage more people to go rope. I saw a future for team roping if we could get more people interested in it.
“My intentions were pure, but not everybody saw it that way. The RCA (Rodeo Cowboys Association; predecessor to today’s PRCA) wouldn’t let Ropers Sports News advertise in their paper, because it was a jackpot-oriented publication, and they weren’t for that because it wasn’t rodeo.”
Some of today’s young-gun ropers won’t remember the days when team roping was not a standard event and included in every rodeo. Team ropers make up the majority of the PRCA membership now, but back then so many rodeos didn’t even include team roping. And those that did rarely gave team ropers the respect of adding equal money.
“At that time, only rodeos in California, and a few in Arizona and New Mexico even had team roping,” Feist explained. “I’ve always had a love for team roping, and my idea was that if we could get more people interested in our sport, some of those people would be on rodeo committees and would join us in helping our event. Team ropers are the ones with the greatest economic impact on any rodeo town, in terms of money spent in the community on food, fuel and everything else.
“It all used to be so simple for ropers. People would ride to the neighbor’s ranch to rope. That’s all changed over the years. The good news is that more people are involved in team roping today than ever before. Team ropers drive the Western industry. They spend a ton of money on trucks, trailers, horses, saddles, ropes and all the rest of it.”
The Wheatley family now runs four generations deep in ropers and Ropers Sports News readers, including Jim, who headed at the National Finals Rodeo six times (1973-76, ’78 and ’81), and son Wade, who headed at the Finals six straight years from 2000-05.
“I started reading Ropers Sports News when it first came out, and still read it all these years later,” Jim Wheatley said. “You knew where the ropings were going to be, and what time they were going to start. Before that, we were constantly on the phone trying to find out where we could go rope. There weren’t any cell phones, so you’d call somebody, nobody was home, and you’d just have to keep trying.
“I’ve known Bob since long before he started Ropers Sports News. He was a roper himself, so it wasn’t some stranger stepping into our arena. He was hands-on, and he knew what we needed. Bob’s always been a promoter of roping in one way or another, whether it was with his paper or his roping. Bob’s a longtime promoter of the Western lifestyle, and that’s important to all of us.”
Leo Camarillo will go down in history as a roping revolutionary, and won world team roping titles in 1972, ’73, ’75 and ’83. The 1975 world champion all-around cowboy, who heeled at the NFR 20 times and won the most 10-head NFR average titles ever at six, also was an original RSN reader. The now late Lion was never one to blow smoke with unearned compliments.
“Communication is key in all business, and the Ropers Sports News made a difference when it came onto the scene,” Leo told me one time. “Word of mouth wasn’t enough anymore, and it was hard to get word out back then. Ropers Sports News stepped up.
“I don’t know how I made it through my career without cell phones, like these guys have today. Ropers Sports News had a big impact on the jackpot roping community. It became a Bible for the ropers. It was the go-to to find out what was going on back in the day. This publication was a shot in the arm for those of us who loved to rope. It helped us plan our week around where we could go rope. It helped organize us, and get more players to the game.”
Besides Feist’s parents, Alberta 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-beneath-his-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-by-10-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.”
Boss Man Bob flanked by two of his biggest fans, Stephanie Anderson and Kendra Santos, when he was honored in Colorado Springs in July. Behind every good man is a great woman, and Steph has been that workhorse woman for 50 years. Bob and Steph were the first to take a chance on hiring Kendra as a Cal Poly college kid. – Shayla Simpson Photo
Bob Feist and Art Arnold reminisced about the evolution of team roping and the RSN at the Hall in Colorado Springs. Arnold was an original RSN subscriber, and remains one today. See page 7 for a closer look at the front page of the first-ever RSN. – Kendra Santos Photo
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
