Tyler

By ADAM RUSSELL
Staff Writer

This weekend, the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame will induct a longtime Tyler resident and lawyer for his 15-year rodeo career fighting and riding bulls and bareback horses, wrestling steers and other comedy offerings.

Duane Stephens, who has practiced criminal law in Tyler for more than 40 years, will be inducted into the TRCHF today for his accomplishments inside the rodeo arena.

Stephens, 73, was senior member and creator of the law firm Stephens, Corn, Rosenstein and Associates in Tyler and paid his way, with rodeo earnings, through Stephen F. Austin and South Texas College of Law, where he earned his law degree.

He worked for many Texas-based rodeo contractors as well as outfits outside the state. His bullfighting skills and personality, and the popularity of his horse trick acts, made him a regular fixture on rodeo circuits all over Texas and the nation.

"I got knocked off my feet once a year," he said about his bullfighting and clown days. "I was very fortunate."

He traveled with his wife of 52 years and said his first son had been in 39 states before he was 1 year old. Stephens said that in his 12 years of bullfighting he has jumped on bulls, been horned by them and done everything a rodeo clown could do aside from getting inside a barrel, a bullfighter's safe haven. He said he was too claustrophobic and that the safest place in an arena with a bull is with your hand on his head between its horns. An older rodeo clown, Bill Garcia, taught him the trick and he said it was useful throughout the rest of his career.

"He was old and going and I was young and coming," he said laughing. "But that trick saved me many-a-time."

Stephens owned several "trick" horses during his rodeo career, but "Smokey" was "the best horse act in the world." Smokey knew 37 tricks that entertained rodeo crowds during breaks between competitions. Stephens said one of the tricks involved acting crippled, like he had a hurt hoof and needed medicine. Stephens would bring out a 3-foot-tall whiskey bottle, which the horse would mimic drinking, Stephens said, and then walk, staggering as if he were drunk.

In 2005, Stephens traveled 4,000 miles on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to a rodeo clown reunion in Pendleton, Ore. The reunions are held every two years and will be staged a little closer next year in Dodge City, Kan.

The most wonderful thing about the rodeo and his years in them is the brotherhood among the cowboys, he said. The reunions allow him to relive that comradery with his peers, past and present. He turned in his Rodeo Cowboys Association (now the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) card in 1965 to finish law school and gave up rough stock rodeo after being licensed in 1968. Stephens said he is thankful for the recognition the TRCHF is bestowing upon him and that he is sure there are many more deserving of the induction.

He said he has been able to work, doing the things he loved to do. Since he was a child, he said, he had a strong desire to be a rodeo cowboy and a lawyer. He succeeded at both. When asked if there were any similarities to the courtroom and facing down an angry bull, Stephens quipped, "You're center stage in both places and the courtroom may be more dangerous," he said. "But the headlines will be the same."