Lane Frost
Encyclopedia
Lane Clyde Frost was a professional bull rider and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
(PRCA) member, who died in the arena at the 1989 Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo
as a result of injuries sustained riding the bull "Takin' Care of Business".
. However, Lane's father, Clyde Frost, was on the rodeo
circuit as a saddle bronc and bareback rider, and Lane's mother, Elsie, went to stay with her parents in Kim, Colorado
, while she waited for Lane to arrive. Lane was born in the hospital in La Junta
, Colorado, the closest medical facility to Kim. Lane has an older sister, Robin, and a younger brother, Cody.
Lane started riding dairy
calves on the family dairy farm
when he was 5 or 6. He was 9 when he first got on a bull. However, to the relief of his family, he met Don Gay
around that time, and Don told Lane that he should just ride calves and steers until his bones were more fully developed. Mrs. Frost says that they had been telling Lane the same thing, but according to his mother, "Of course he listened to Don!"
At the age of 15 Lane started to ride bulls on a regular basis. Before that, he had been competing on calves and steers. His first rodeo awards were won in 1974, when he was 10, at the "Little Buckaroos" Rodeos held in Uintah Basin
. Lane stayed on a bucking Shetland Pony
to win first in bareback, took second in calf roping
and rode a calf in the "bull riding" event to place third. While rodeoing wasn't the way of life his parents exactly wanted for him, they never discouraged him, and helped him whenever they could.
Lane spent his first fourteen years in Utah, doing chores on the dairy farm his parents owned, and later competing in various rodeo events. When he was in junior high school (seventh and eighth grade), in Vernal
, Utah, he excelled in wrestling
. Although he never wrestled before entering junior high, as many of the other boys had done, because of his interest in rodeo, the coaches still had high expectations for him. Lane, then weighing only seventy-five pounds, won forty-five matches, lost four times, and had two ties.
Lane also continued competing in the "Little Britches Rodeos", and any other rodeo he could enter, until his parents moved the family to the town of Lane, Oklahoma
, in 1978 to escape the harsh Utah winters. He attended Atoka High School in Atoka
, Oklahoma.
He was taught the art of riding by his father and also his dad's good friend, Freckles Brown
, who was a World Champion Bull Rider. In Oklahoma
, Lane was the National High School Bull Riding Champion in 1981. He was the Bull Riding Champion of the first Youth National Finals in Fort Worth, Texas
, in 1982.
On January 5, 1984, he married Kellie Kyle, a barrel racer from Quanah
west of Wichita Falls
, Texas.
, Alberta
, Canada. This was the first time that an exhibition rodeo was held at the Olympics.
, after completing a successful 85-point ride on a bull named "Taking Care of Business", Frost dismounted and landed in the mud. The bull turned and hit him in the side with his horn, breaking several of Frost's ribs. Lane initially rose to his feet and began running toward the chutes
. As he was running and signaling for help, Frost fell to the ground causing the broken ribs to puncture his heart
. Lane was rushed to Memorial Hospital. On the discovery that Frost's heart injury was irreparable, the doctors pronounced him dead. No autopsy
was performed. Frost posthumously finished 3rd in the event. "Takin' Care of Business" went on to appear in the 1990 National Finals Rodeo
.
Frost is buried next to his hero and mentor Freckles Brown
at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hugo, Oklahoma
.
, one of his traveling partners, and a founder of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), created the protective vest that all professional cowboys now must wear when riding bulls.
In 1994, the biopic movie based on Frost's life, 8 Seconds
, was released. Luke Perry
portrayed Frost in the movie. Lane's best friend Tuff Hedeman
was played by Stephen Baldwin
.
Lane's memory has been honored in many ways. The medical team for the PBR league is named after Frost, as is the Lane Frost/Brent Thurman Award, given for the highest scoring ride at the PBR World Finals . The Lane Frost Health and Rehabilitation Center in Hugo, Oklahoma is dedicated to his memory. His parents live in Lane, Oklahoma, and travel to many rodeos around the country giving speeches in his memory. Country music star Garth Brooks
paid tribute to Frost in his music video for the hit single "The Dance", as did Randy Schmutz in the song "A Smile Like That." In addition, the song "Red Rock" by The Smokin' Armadillos is about Lane.
Frost has been inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado
in August 1990 and the PBR Ring of Honor in 1999, as well as the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
in Fort Worth, and the Oklahoma Sports Museum.
Frost's parents have authorized Cowboy Bible: The Living New Testament, with a sketch of Frost on the cover.
Frost's widow, Kellie, is now married to Mike Macy, a former rodeo performer and a rancher near Post
in Garza County
, Texas. The Macys have a son and a daughter.
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is an organization whose members compete in rodeos throughout North America, primarily in the United States. The PRCA sanctions rodeo venues and events through the PRCA Circuit System. Its championship event is the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo...
(PRCA) member, who died in the arena at the 1989 Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
as a result of injuries sustained riding the bull "Takin' Care of Business".
Early life
Lane was born on October 12, 1963. At that time, his parents lived in Lapoint, UtahLapoint, Utah
Lapoint is an unincorporated community in western Uintah County, Utah, United States, on the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation. It lies along State Route 121 west of the city of Vernal, the county seat of Uintah County. Its elevation is 5,568 feet . Although Lapoint is unincorporated, it...
. However, Lane's father, Clyde Frost, was on the rodeo
Rodeo
Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...
circuit as a saddle bronc and bareback rider, and Lane's mother, Elsie, went to stay with her parents in Kim, Colorado
Kim, Colorado
The Town of Kim is a Statutory Town located in Las Animas County, Colorado, United States. The population was 65 at the U.S. Census 2000.Rodeo star Lane Frost was born in La Junta in 1963 but spent his first days with his mother and grandparents in Kim, while his father was on tour.-Geography:Kim...
, while she waited for Lane to arrive. Lane was born in the hospital in La Junta
La Junta, Colorado
The City of La Junta is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Otero County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 7,568 at the U.S. Census 2000. La Junta is located on the Arkansas River in southeastern Colorado east of Pueblo.-History:During...
, Colorado, the closest medical facility to Kim. Lane has an older sister, Robin, and a younger brother, Cody.
Lane started riding dairy
Dairy
A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting of animal milk—mostly from cows or goats, but also from buffalo, sheep, horses or camels —for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on a dedicated dairy farm or section of a multi-purpose farm that is concerned...
calves on the family dairy farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
when he was 5 or 6. He was 9 when he first got on a bull. However, to the relief of his family, he met Don Gay
Don Gay
Don "Donnie" Gay is an eight-time PRCA world champion bullrider. Born in 1953 to Neal and Evelyn "Cookie" Foster and was only a year old when she died of leukemia. Kay Gay raised Donny and Pete as her own.. He grew up in Mesquite, Texas, and started rodeo at age 6. His father is Neal Gay, a...
around that time, and Don told Lane that he should just ride calves and steers until his bones were more fully developed. Mrs. Frost says that they had been telling Lane the same thing, but according to his mother, "Of course he listened to Don!"
At the age of 15 Lane started to ride bulls on a regular basis. Before that, he had been competing on calves and steers. His first rodeo awards were won in 1974, when he was 10, at the "Little Buckaroos" Rodeos held in Uintah Basin
Uintah Basin
The Uintah Basin, also spelled Uinta Basin, is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in eastern Utah, east of the Wasatch Mountains and south of the...
. Lane stayed on a bucking Shetland Pony
Shetland pony
The Shetland pony is a breed of pony originating in the Shetland Isles. Shetlands range in size from a minimum height of approximately 28 inches to an official maximum height of 42 inches at the withers. Shetland ponies have heavy coats, short legs and are considered quite intelligent...
to win first in bareback, took second in calf roping
Calf roping
Calf roping, also known as tie-down roping, is a rodeo event that features a calf and a rider mounted on a horse. The goal of this timed event is for the rider to catch the calf by throwing a loop of rope from a lariat around its neck, dismount from the horse, run to the calf, and restrain it by...
and rode a calf in the "bull riding" event to place third. While rodeoing wasn't the way of life his parents exactly wanted for him, they never discouraged him, and helped him whenever they could.
Lane spent his first fourteen years in Utah, doing chores on the dairy farm his parents owned, and later competing in various rodeo events. When he was in junior high school (seventh and eighth grade), in Vernal
Vernal, Utah
Vernal, Uintah County's largest city, is located in eastern Utah near the Colorado State Line, and 175 miles east of Salt Lake City. It is bordered on the north by the Uinta Mountains, one of the few mountains ranges in the world which lie in an east-west rather than the usual north to south...
, Utah, he excelled in wrestling
Wrestling
Wrestling is a form of grappling type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position...
. Although he never wrestled before entering junior high, as many of the other boys had done, because of his interest in rodeo, the coaches still had high expectations for him. Lane, then weighing only seventy-five pounds, won forty-five matches, lost four times, and had two ties.
Lane also continued competing in the "Little Britches Rodeos", and any other rodeo he could enter, until his parents moved the family to the town of Lane, Oklahoma
Lane, Oklahoma
Lane is a small unincorporated community in Atoka County, Oklahoma, United States. The post office was established February 11, 1888.Lane is located along State Highway 3 southeast of Atoka....
, in 1978 to escape the harsh Utah winters. He attended Atoka High School in Atoka
Atoka, Oklahoma
Atoka is a city in Atoka County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,052 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Atoka County.-Geography:Atoka is located at ....
, Oklahoma.
He was taught the art of riding by his father and also his dad's good friend, Freckles Brown
Freckles Brown
Warren Granger "Freckles" Brown was a rodeo performer born in Wheatland, Wyoming on January 18, 1921. He died March 20, 1987, at his ranch in Soper, Oklahoma....
, who was a World Champion Bull Rider. In Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, Lane was the National High School Bull Riding Champion in 1981. He was the Bull Riding Champion of the first Youth National Finals in Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, in 1982.
On January 5, 1984, he married Kellie Kyle, a barrel racer from Quanah
Quanah, Texas
Quanah is a city in and the county seat of Hardeman County, Texas, United States, northwest of Fort Worth, and a few miles from the Oklahoma-Texas state line...
west of Wichita Falls
Wichita Falls, Texas
Wichita Falls is a city in and the county seat of Wichita County, Texas, United States, United States. Wichita Falls is the principal city of the Wichita Falls Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Archer, Clay and Wichita counties. According to the U.S. Census estimate of 2010,...
, Texas.
Professional career
Frost joined the PRCA and began rodeoing full time after graduating from high school in 1982. In 1987, he realized a lifelong dream when he became the PRCA World Champion Bull Rider at the age of 24. That same year, the great bull "Red Rock", owned by Growney Bros. Rodeo Company, was voted Bucking Bull of the Year. In 309 attempts, no one had ever ridden "Red Rock", and in 1988, at the Challenge of Champions, Frost rode "Red Rock" in seven exhibition matches and was successful in four out of seven tries. Frost went on to compete at the Winter Olympics in CalgaryCalgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Canada. This was the first time that an exhibition rodeo was held at the Olympics.
Death
On July 30, 1989, at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in Cheyenne, WyomingCheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Wyoming and the county seat of Laramie County. It is the principal city of the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Laramie County. The population is 59,466 at the 2010 census. Cheyenne is the...
, after completing a successful 85-point ride on a bull named "Taking Care of Business", Frost dismounted and landed in the mud. The bull turned and hit him in the side with his horn, breaking several of Frost's ribs. Lane initially rose to his feet and began running toward the chutes
Cattle crush
A cattle crush , squeeze chute , standing stock, or simply stock is a strongly built stall or cage for holding cattle, horses, or other livestock safely while they are examined, marked, or given veterinary treatment. Cows may be made to suckle calves in a crush...
. As he was running and signaling for help, Frost fell to the ground causing the broken ribs to puncture his heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
. Lane was rushed to Memorial Hospital. On the discovery that Frost's heart injury was irreparable, the doctors pronounced him dead. No autopsy
Autopsy
An autopsy—also known as a post-mortem examination, necropsy , autopsia cadaverum, or obduction—is a highly specialized surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse to determine the cause and manner of death and to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present...
was performed. Frost posthumously finished 3rd in the event. "Takin' Care of Business" went on to appear in the 1990 National Finals Rodeo
National Finals Rodeo
The National Finals Rodeo, organized by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, is the premier championship rodeo event in the United States. Wrangler Jeans is the title sponsor for the 10-day event, commonly just called the National Finals or NFR, which is also sometimes referred to as the...
.
Freckles Brown
Warren Granger "Freckles" Brown was a rodeo performer born in Wheatland, Wyoming on January 18, 1921. He died March 20, 1987, at his ranch in Soper, Oklahoma....
at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Hugo, Oklahoma
Hugo, Oklahoma
Hugo is a city in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma, bordering Texas. Hugo is the county seat for Choctaw County and has a population of 5,395 as of 2009 estimates. The city serves as winter quarters for some circus performers...
.
Legacy
After Lane's death, Cody LambertCody Lambert
Cody Lambert is a former professional saddle bronc & bull rider. He was a Champion Bull Riding Cowboy and Vice President of the Professional Bull Riders, Inc. He created the protective vest that most Professional Bull Riders wear, after seeing the death of his friend, Lane Frost at the Cheyenne...
, one of his traveling partners, and a founder of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR), created the protective vest that all professional cowboys now must wear when riding bulls.
In 1994, the biopic movie based on Frost's life, 8 Seconds
8 Seconds
8 Seconds is a 1994 biographical film about American rodeo legend and world bull riding champion Lane Frost. It details his life from his youth learning how to ride bulls, until his death in 1989. It was directed by John G...
, was released. Luke Perry
Luke Perry
Luke Perry is an American actor. Perry starred as Dylan McKay on the TV series Beverly Hills, 90210, a role he played from 1990–95, and then from 1998–2000. Much publicity was garnered over the fact that even though he was playing a sixteen-year-old when 90210 began, Perry was actually in his...
portrayed Frost in the movie. Lane's best friend Tuff Hedeman
Tuff Hedeman
Richard Neale "Tuff" Hedeman is a retired 3 time Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association World Champion bull rider, as well as the 1995 Professional Bull Riders World Champion, and is the current president of Championship Bull Riding...
was played by Stephen Baldwin
Stephen Baldwin
Stephen Andrew Baldwin is an American actor, director, producer and author. One of the Baldwin brothers, he is known for his roles as William F. Cody in the western show The Young Riders and as Stuart in the movie Threesome...
.
Lane's memory has been honored in many ways. The medical team for the PBR league is named after Frost, as is the Lane Frost/Brent Thurman Award, given for the highest scoring ride at the PBR World Finals . The Lane Frost Health and Rehabilitation Center in Hugo, Oklahoma is dedicated to his memory. His parents live in Lane, Oklahoma, and travel to many rodeos around the country giving speeches in his memory. Country music star Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks
Troyal Garth Brooks , best known as Garth Brooks, is an American country music artist who helped make country music a worldwide phenomenon. His eponymous first album was released in 1989 and peaked at number 2 in the US country album chart while climbing to number 13 on the Billboard 200 album chart...
paid tribute to Frost in his music video for the hit single "The Dance", as did Randy Schmutz in the song "A Smile Like That." In addition, the song "Red Rock" by The Smokin' Armadillos is about Lane.
Frost has been inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...
in August 1990 and the PBR Ring of Honor in 1999, as well as the Cheyenne Frontier Days Hall of Fame, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame
The Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame, a museum in Fort Worth, Texas, "pays tribute to the cowboys and cowgirls of the Lone Star State." Most of the exhibits are male-oriented, as there is a separate National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in the Cultural District of Fort Worth.The museum, which offers...
in Fort Worth, and the Oklahoma Sports Museum.
Frost's parents have authorized Cowboy Bible: The Living New Testament, with a sketch of Frost on the cover.
Frost's widow, Kellie, is now married to Mike Macy, a former rodeo performer and a rancher near Post
Post, Texas
Post is a city in and the county seat of Garza County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,708 at the 2000 census.There are many ranchers and civic boosters in Garza County, among them Giles McCrary, a former mayor who operates the OS Museum, a hybrid of exhibits from both the American West...
in Garza County
Garza County, Texas
Garza County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas southeast of Lubbock. In 2000, its population was 4,872. Its county seat is Post. Garza is named for a pioneer Bexar County family, as it was once a part of that county....
, Texas. The Macys have a son and a daughter.