Charles "Floyd Rumford, Jr. a rodeo stock contractor for over fifty years, is the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame's Rodeo Inductee for 2004.
Born December 18, 1920, Floyd began riding horses and mules at a young age. As a child he broke every mule and horse on his family's farm. Before the age of ten, a Hutchinson sale barn employed Floyd to ride horses around the auction ring for $2.00.
During World War II, Rumford served in the South Pacific. This was also the time when Rumford decided he was going to participate in rodeos. After he finished his military stint, Floyd returned home to do just that. In 1947, he won the All-Around Cowboy Title at Kingman's Cattlemen's Rodeo. From there, he built a reputation that he could ride anything with four legs. However, in 1949, Floyd overturned a tractor and was pinned beneath it in a ditch full of water. He spent the next three months in a hospital recuperating from a severely broken leg, then with gangrene from a puncture wound in his leg. When doctors spoke of amputation, Floyd saw his rodeo career slipping away. Lying there thinking he could be crippled for the rest of his life, Floyd decided he would be a stock contractor.
From his hospital bed, Floyd produced his first rodeo, which he was not allowed to attend due to the severity of his injuries. That first event, held in conjunction with the Sterling Saddle Club, went to aid Rumford's medical expenses. A huge success, the rodeo netted $400.00. The animals needed for various competitions came from Rumford's own farm and from area RCA Stock Contractors. The following year Floyd went on to produce four more rodeos in various Kansas counties. Three years later, Floyd became an official rodeo stock contractor; thus Rumford Rodeo Company was born.
Over time, the company began to be noted for some of its outstanding stock. Floyd believed the company's success came from their good reputation for rank stock. Every year a new generation of bucking horses and bulls was born. And while the company had a good reputation, Floyd was known to tell rodeo committees that if they'd bring in a horse that he couldn't ride, then he would know $100.00 off his price. Floyd remembered, "They'd bring in a wild, crazy horseÉI'd climb in the chute, lay down on the horse with my head towards it backside, lock my feet around its neck and grab his flanksÉthey'd swing open the gate and I'd come out riding him backwardsÉ the crowd enjoyed itÉ sometimes you don't get off gracefully, but I was never bucked off."
The sport of rodeo quickly became a family affair for Floyd, his wife Lola and their tow sons Bronc and Tommy. Rumford Rodeo Company is still a family owned and operated business near Abbyville, Kansas. Every year, it produces an average twenty-five professional rodeos, as well as supplying stock for several major rodeos.
The company still has regular qualifying, bucking stock for the National Finals Rodeo. They also conduct various high school, college and ranch rodeos. Floyd's son Bronc recalled, "Rodeo was really in its infancy when Dad got started." From the first week in January through the second week in December, Rumford Rodeo Company provides stock for more than forty rodeos throughout the mid-west and southwest. Floyd also helped start the Abbyville Rodeo, which was closest to the family's ranch and closest to Floyd's heart. At the rodeo's first performance, Floyd rode a bronc for an enthusiastic hometown crowd. In 1983, for the Abbyville Rodeo's 20th Anniversary, Floyd climbed on another bronc. Ten years later, at the rodeo's 30th Anniversary, Floyd – now seventy-years-old – again gave another crowd-pleasing bronc ride; thereby refusing to heed the lectures delivered by his wife and sons.
In 1998, the Women's Professional Rodeo Association selected Rumford Rodeo Company as its Stock Contractor of the Year. Later that same year, the company suffered a tragic blow when founder Floyd Rumford passed away on May 25th. Floyd – an author, poet, storyteller and rodeo cowboy – is remember for his genuine interest in people, his love of horses and rodeos, and most importantly the love he held for his family and friends.
