WY Bullfighter Featured in ESPN

Professional rodeo bullfighter Dusty Tuckness from Meeteetse, WY is subject of a full-page feature in the new issue of ESPN The Magazine hitting newsstands across the country this week. More than two million subscribers got their copies last week and that’s when Tuckness started hearing from friends and family. “One person I haven’t spoken with in several years called and said when he opened his magazine and saw me he about fell out of his chair,” laughed Tuckness.

A writer first contacted Tuckness in June at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, WY. “He told me ESPN had an idea to do a story on a rodeo bullfighter and I continued to talk with him all that week about the lifestyle,” Tuckness said. They did not speak again until over the Fourth of July at the Cody Stampede and Xtreme Bulls. The magazine was interested, Tuckness was told, and there would be more contact. Toward the end of August an editor called to say they wanted to run the story.

ESPN The Magazine sent a photographer to the rodeo in Norco, CA in late August and hoped to show Dusty in action. “I did what I could but trying to tell a two-thousand pound bull what to do wasn’t easy. He wasn’t very cooperative,” Tuckness admitted. Tuckness said the ESPN people assigned to the photo shoot weren’t accustomed to being in such close proximity to rodeo livestock. “They got a new look at rodeo, that’s for sure.” The crew felt they had enough good pictures after about four hours of trying.

The article was meticulously researched. “They checked and double-checked everything and were very specific in their questioning. It’s pretty neat to be in a magazine of that caliber and there’s no telling what it could do for rodeo. It was an honor. I was proud to represent our sport, Wyoming, and my other sponsors,” Tuckness noted.

Dusty Tuckness is back in Meeteetse healing from recent injuries sustained at pro rodeo’s playoff finale in Omaha last month. He’ll be fighting bulls next at the Mountain States Circuit Finals in Rock Springs, Oct. 20-22. Tuckness won the 2010 “Bullfighter of the Year” award and has been nominated for that honor again this year.

View ESPN Article

Contact Dusty Tuckness: 307-272-9803