Shane Proctor, a former Cody Stampede and three-time Xtreme Bulls winner, an NFR champ and college rodeo star, rode a bull at the rodeo grounds on the west side of town for the last time July 3.

It was fitting: At 18 when Proctor started down this rodeo path professionally, his first college rodeo was in the very same spot, back when he rode for the Northwest College Trappers.

At the penultimate night of the Cody Stampede, Proctor, 39, and former college teammate Sid Sporer, 38, both said they still carried some of the lessons they learned in Powell two decades later. 

Proctor didn’t have the result he wanted — he wasn’t able to stay on Frontier Rodeo’s Cold Bull for 8 seconds — but he still enjoyed his time back in Cody before heading to the next stop of his Cowboy Christmas calendar. He even spent the week prior to the rodeo teaching aspiring bronc and bull riders at the Cody Nite Rodeo. His wife and 3-year-old daughter have joined him on the road, and his wife, who has a specialty act, was performing in Montana while Proctor was in Cody.

“I’ve been on hundreds of head in this arena and its a special place for me and everywhere I go I know people,” he said, adding, “It’s been a really good spot for me over the years — it’s where I went to my first college rodeo. I’ve got lots of stories about the area. People here have been great to me over the years.”

While Proctor came to Del Nose’s NWC rodeo program from Grand Coulee, Washington, for Sporer it was right up the road from his Cody home.

“It was kind of a blessing being able to be this close to home and still get a good education,” he said. “I didn't finish out here but the influence those guys had on me, it's a lasting impression.”

Sporer was able to give a good impression at the July 3 rodeo, as he and header Tee McLeod of Waldeck, Saskatchewan, finished in 4.7 seconds, good for a tie for sixth in team roping alongside another Trapper alum, Mason Trollinger of Casper, and his partner Jade Stoddard of Sugar City, Idaho.

The finish was bittersweet for Sporer, who lost his father earlier in the year.

“It's been kind of a roller coaster year,” he said. “I lost my dad in February and this is the first year he hasn’t been there to watch. It’s just a lot.”

He still had other family members to visit after he left the arena, including his mother, who runs Heart Mountain Grill at Yellowstone Regional Airport. Sporer said he’s backing the restaurant and helps out when he can, although the rodeo life keeps him on the road.

He and his partner are eying the Canadian Finals in Edmonton in October, and have been up north a lot to be in the running.

No matter where he’s roping, Sporer said there’s lessons from his time as a Trapper that still stick with him.

“I find myself going back to that a lot of the things that [Del] and Becky instilled in us,” Sporer said. “I didn't understand it at the time, but you know, now you're a little older. You know, they expected a lot from us as far as being professional, showing up, being on time … when you're that young you don't quite understand, but when you get older you reflect on those things and what they were trying to get through to you.”

Those lessons stick decades later.

Proctor remembers what he learned from both Del and the NWC roughstock coach at the time, Gavin Gleich, about not just the physical but the mental aspect of rodeo.

“The mentality is 90% of it,” he said. “It’s a sport that it doesn’t matter what you did the day before, you start all over the next day. You can be king of the hill and the next day you’re the joker. It’s just part of the game and I’ve been lucky enough to play it a long time.”