It was 1950. Gas was 27 cents a gallon, the average cost of a new home was $4,900, and admission to the Franklin Rodeo was sixty cents. That year, the Franklin Rodeo began in Franklin, at that time an agricultural community with a population of 5,475.
This year, the rodeo celebrates its 75th anniversary. It’s made it through good times and bad, with thousands of fans who enjoy it every year.
At the time, the Franklin Noon Rotary Club had just begun and was looking for a fundraiser. The Fowlkes family, including Preston Fowlkes, Sr., had just moved to town from Texas, and he was known as a “hand,” good at anything rodeo related.
He agreed to help the club put on a rodeo, and a date was chosen, Saturday, May 6, 1950.
But it rained hard that day, a deluge, and there was no way a rodeo could be held. So the organizers did something nearly sacrilegious at the time: they moved the rodeo to Sunday afternoon.
“Back then, you didn’t do anything on Sunday but go to church and go home,” remembered Larry Dale, a long-time Rotarian. “It was going against the grain to have it on Sunday, but it was well-attended.”
And from there, it grew. It was at County Center, the county park, from 1950-1969. In 1970 it moved to Jim Warren Park and was there for 30 years. In 2001, it moved to the newly-constructed Williamson Co. Ag Expo Park. With climate control and no threat of rain, it took out the factor of dealing with a muddy arena for cowboys and cowgirls, and a muddy parking lot and wet seating for fans.
The second home of the rodeo, Jim Warren Park, has an interesting history. Warren was the club’s first president and a Williamson County Judge who wanted to improve the parks in the county. The TVA owned land on Boyd Mill Pike and gave the city a long-term lease to the property for one dollar, to create a new park. The Rotarians went to work, establishing the park, adding lights and fencing, and more. In typical Rotary fashion, Rotarians got personal notes for their part of the cost of development and a construction loan was secured from the bank. Once the bank notes were paid off, they were burned at a special Rotary meeting.
The site had been mined for phosphate before mine reclamation laws were in place. On the property was a large pit, which was flooded much of the time.
The pit was filled in, but “it was still a mudhole,” Dale recalled. “When it rained, and it always rained on rodeo weekend, there’d be a foot of mud in that arena.” Dale remembers doing the calf scramble in the arena. “We would literally have to pick up kids who were stuck in the mud.” One year, as they prepared the arena for the next rodeo, they found boots still in the arena from the last year, “where kids had run out of their boots.”
The rodeo has always been a fundraiser for the Franklin Noon Rotary Club. Proceeds from the first year were used for new band uniforms for the Franklin High School marching band. In the 1960s, because of a shortage of doctors, dentists and nurses in the area, scholarships from rodeo proceeds were given out. Records weren’t kept in the first decades of the rodeo, but it is estimated that millions of dollars have been donated to a variety of organizations throughout the county and middle Tennessee. This year alone, 70 organizations benefited from rodeo funds. Donations have been made to everything from the school library to Williamson County 4-H Clubs to a host of other charities.
Leadership began with Mr. Ed Moody, co-owner with his brother of Moody’s Tire and Auto Service. He was a dedicated and loyal chairman for 16 years. Jim Short served as co-chairman with Ed Moody. From 1992 to 2004, three men chaired the event: Charlie Fox, Eddy Woodard, and Stewart “Brother” Campbell. Ralph McGee served with Fox, Woodard and Stewart for a short time.
The first female chairperson was Pat Dunn, who got the job in a round-about way. Her husband, Wayne, a local home builder and rodeo cowboy, was asked to chair the rodeo. He promptly answered, “you don’t want me. You want Pat.” Known for her get-it-done attitude, work ethic and organizational skills, she chaired the rodeo from 2004-2010, with help from Bill Fitzgerald and Bill Foley.
In 2010, Fitzgerald took over leadership as executive director, serving in that role until 2021. Now the “four horsemen” are in charge: Devin Gilliam, Gavin Moon, John Abbott, and Mark Tumblin. The fifth horseman, Armando Estrada, came on in 2022 as ticket director.
Fitzgerald said the whole town turns western and rodeo for a week. “The rodeo is a huge event. Everybody looks forward to rodeo once a year.”
It was- and still is -the hottest ticket in town. Fitzgerald remembers sneaking in as a kid. “We didn’t have any money, and when my brother was in the marching band, I talked the band director into letting me walk behind the band, to pick up drumsticks, so I could get into the rodeo for free. That’s how much I loved it.”
This year’s rodeo, the 75th edition, will be May 14-16 with shows starting at 7 pm each night. The rodeo takes place at the Williamson Co. Ag Expo Park. Tickets range in price from $18-$52 and are available online at FranklinRodeo.com.
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