By CHRISTINA MUNSTER, Student Writer
As he backs his red mare, nostrils flaring into the roping box, hand steady on his rope, the thoughts of winning go through his mind.
They’ve been preparing for this moment for years. They have spent countless hours in the practice pen, for each timed run in the rodeo arena. His horse has only one eye. She relies on her rider to be her guide out of the box.
The calf in the chute knows only one thing and one thing alone, run. The calf stirs restlessly trying to make his mad dash out to the arena.
The rider leans back in his saddle, the red mare leans her hindquarters on the corner of the box. The rider takes a deep breath, then raises his rope and nods, releasing the calf. As the calf runs out with the snap of the barrier, the horse and rider goes flying. The calf makes a mad dash down the arena, but he is too slow for the rider, who ropes his neck and then is jerked down by the horse. The rider jumps off his horse, making a run to the calf on the ground.
One leg. Two legs. Three legs. The calf’s legs are tied by the rider as fast as he can. The rider throws his hands in the air, and gets a time by the judge and timer.
He smiles and fist pumps in the air. He did exactly what he was practicing for, he won. It’s big town dreams, small town heart for this one cowboy, William Whayne Jr. setting the new standard for the face of rodeo.
Whayne, a recent graduate of Northwestern Oklahoma State University, is changing the rodeo world. Being born and raised on the north side of Tulsa, Whayne grew up around horses. His father, William Whayne Sr., had already been competing for years professionally, and his son’s love for horses grew from his father.
With his younger sister, Kayla, and older sister, Kimberly, Whayne and his family began to sweep the nation in junior and youth rodeos. What sets Whayne apart from the normal rodeo athlete is he is often the only African American entered.
Upon entering high school, Whayne’s loves for rodeo grew, competing in both the team roping and tie down calf roping. He excels in the calf roping, and over the years has focused primarily on that event.
As most typical high school aged boys, Whayne joined the football team, as a defensive tackle and full back. Winning multiple championships with his team and breaking many school records, it wasn’t long before he was being scouted by multiple big 10 universities for college football.
However, if he played football, he would be unable to rodeo, and those dreams of one day becoming a professional calf roper would be gone. Whayne had to make the difficult decision of giving up one passion to pursue another.
“I didn’t feel like I was big enough to play football and enjoyed roping more,” he said. “It was cool they sent me those big time letters, but it just wasn’t me. I just wanted to rope.”
And rope he did. Whayne was accepted into Connors State College in Warner after high school on a rodeo scholarship. During his time at Connors, he won the world renowned Bill Pickett Worlds. At Connors’ he was able to rope every day, and he was only 5 points away from making College National Finals.
With his time at Connors coming to an end, William decided to pursue his education at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, where he was able to compete one year as a Ranger. With another year of college left, Northwestern’s head coach, Stockton Graves, approached Whayne about being his understudy. The first African American on the rodeo team at Northwestern was now helping change the lives of collegiate rodeo athletes at NWOSU.
Seven-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and NWOSU rodeo head coach, Graves first met Whayne two years ago when Whayne walked into his office on a tour of the school. Graves knew right then that Whayne would be a great asset for the team.
Whayne brought in points for the men’s team in both the tie-down and heel side for the team roping.
“William is very good for our program,” Graves said. “He’s our schools very first African American competitor. When I asked him to be my work-study in August, he became a great asset. He’s helped a lot of these kids get better and has been a great recruiter, recruiting kids from eastern Oklahoma, and its all because of him.”
Sara Bynum, who is a junior barrel racer at Northwestern, credits a lot of her success to Whayne. “He’s one of the best I know,” she said. “This year would have been hell without him. He’s the kind of person that if I were to hear someone talking bad about him, I wouldn’t think any differently about William, but I would that person talking badly about him.” When she wanted to give up, he pushed her to reach her dreams when she thought she couldn’t, she said.
Jana Centoni-Sampson, a senior at Northwestern, credits Wayne with changing her from primarily just a team roper into a breakaway roper. When she first came to Northwestern, she had done breakaway a little growing up, but not competitively. Whayne saw potential in her and worked with her every day on her calf roping. She’s made a few short rounds in the breakaway, and she credits her success to him.
“He was the only one who’s ever sat and just worked with me,” she said. “He didn’t tell me I sucked or just tell me what to do. He sat hours with me roping the dummy, riding our horses, just working on me and showing me how to be successful in the arena. If it wasn’t for him I would never have gotten this far.”
Whayne has helped the careers of many students at Northwestern.