Bruhns is 2008 Sisters Rodeo Grand Marshal

Billy Bob Bruhns is the 2008 Sisters Rodeo Grand Marshal.

Billy Bob has a long history with the nearly seven-decade-old event. Although Billy Bob does not date back as far in rodeo history as some of the old-timers, his history still goes back about three decades.

"I have been a part of the rodeo since about '78 or '79, somewhere in that vicinity, and I was the president for a couple of years. I was the president right after John Morris, and then John Leavitt was the president after me," he said.

The once very active man now spends most of his time in a wheelchair, but somehow his physical presence is not diminished in any way. No longer able to ride, Billy Bob has put that part of his life behind him.

"I haven't been able to ride since I had prostate cancer, and so I had to leave all that behind," said Billy Bob.

All the old-timers remember his most famous act for the Sisters Rodeo.

"I was the one who burned down the clubhouse. Everybody was storing programs and stuff in the furnace room, and so one year I had some left, and I just put them in there too," said Billy Bob.

An unusual cold snap proved to be the catalyst for a disaster.

"We had a big drop in temperature, and the furnace came on, and the programs stored next to the furnace caught fire and spread through the building. We had an old member staying out here in a camper at the time, and he didn't even know about it until it was really going," said Billy Bob.

Word, however, got around quickly about the fire.

"I got a call, and we came out. There were smoke and flames everywhere. The fire guys wouldn't let us in, but we went around and snuck in and got all the old posters out to save them," said Billy Bob.

The "show must go on" was the motto of the time, according to Billy Bob.

"Glenn Miller (the current Rodeo president) rebuilt the clubhouse, and we got the keys at 3 p.m. in the afternoon on Friday, and the first performance was at 7 p.m. That's how close it was to being a total disaster. We were in here mopping floors. They were taking their tools out and stuff like that. It was really close."

Billy Bob has many memories:

"The time Cuddles (a legendary bull whose stuffed head now resides in the clubhouse) caught John Morris in the back gate, and he got off with a lot of bruises. That was a great memory."

Then, there are the memories that revolve around near tragedies. These are Billy Bob's favorites.

"Another great memory was one year we had a clown act where he decided that he would disappear in an outhouse when he set it on fire. To disappear he dug a hole in the arena and buried a 55-gallon drum and put a board over it with some dirt. We found out about it, and we really had a fit over it since people were running thousands and thousands of dollars worth of horses over it. We had an emergency board meeting and dealt with it right away," said Billy Bob.

Another star memory in Billy Bob's long line of reflections popped up from deep within his memory bank: "I guess one of my favorite memories is when I was president and we got the aluminum box seats. That was a really big project for us. We tore down the old seats and put the new ones up, and it was really close if we were going to have it finished by the first performance. It looked like a puzzle when we got it. It was just a lot of nuts and bolts and parts. Luckily, the manufacturer sent a guy out with it, and he stayed a week-and-a-half or so showing us what to do. Without him, we would have been completely lost."

Several animals also figure strongly in his memories of rodeos gone by.

"My favorite animals over the years were Red Rock (a bull) and Cuddles. I really got a kick out of Cuddles. Red Rock was actually a puppy dog when he wasn't working in the ring. Cowboys could climb all over him and pet him like a puppy dog. Cuddles wasn't a petter. You had to always watch him, or he would get you."