by Terry Lidral
Barbara “Tad” Barnes Lucas spent a lifetime involved in her beloved sport of rodeo. Raised on a pioneer ranch in Cody, Nebraska at the turn of the 20th century, Lucas started riding horses as soon as she could walk. She was a natural on horseback, regularly winning the horse races run between the children living in the pioneer territory.
Born Barbara Inez Barnes into a family of 24 children, Barbara was called “Tadpole” because of her very small size. The nickname was shortened to “Tad,” the name she came to be known by throughout her life.
“Tad” Lucas reveled in the pioneer lifestyle. She was helping her brothers break colts by the age of 7. And for fun, she rode the calves around the fields. She became good at riding steers, winning a steer riding contest at the age of 14. And, as a teenager, she participated in a bull riding fund raiser held in the streets of her hometown of Cody to benefit the Red Cross during World War I.
By the turn of the 20th Century, Buffalo Bill Cody had popularized rodeos and Wild West shows. A Wild West show came to Cody and Lucas was intrigued. At the age of 16, she set out to pursue her dreams of being a star.
Her riding skills were outstanding and she joined up with a group known as California Frank Hadley’s Wild West Show. There, she met a troupe of “Cossack” trick riders. The troupe befriended Lucas and trained her in the art of trick riding. It was a perfect fit for the horse woman from Nebraska.
Lucas traveled to Mexico with Hadley’s Wild West Show and then moved on to rodeo competition. It is said that she became a full-time professional contestant on the rodeo circuit in 1922. She is credited with winning prizes that year at Belle Fouche, South Dakota, Pittsburg, Kansas and Fort Worth, Texas.
Tad Lucas, the girl who grew up in a pioneer town in Nebraska, used her natural talent as a rider to forge into the spotlight of trick riding and Wild West Shows.
In 1923, Lucas settled into the road show life, this time with Tex Austin’s Wild West Show. Women had come to be featured stars in these popular sources of entertainment, competing in relay races and rodeo events, doing tricks on horseback and performing specialty acts. This was Tad Barnes’ niche.
Wild West shows were becoming trendy annual events in the big cities of the eastern United States. And Austin’s Madison Square Garden show was one of the biggest. The MSG performances included everything from women’s bronc riding and trick riding to a best dressed cowgirl contest.
Tad Lucas made a great showing at her first Madison Square Garden event. She won 2nd in the women’s bronc riding and 3rd in the best dressed cowgirl contest. She had earned her place as a star of the show.
So, when Tex Austin decided to gather together a group of star performers for an international performance in London, he added Tad Lucas to his cast. Also included to the roster was a rodeo professional named James “Buck” Lucas. He was the man Tad married before they sailed across the Atlantic.
The newlyweds, along with the rest of Austin’s crew, competed in Wembley Stadium in London in the event called the British Empire Exposition Rodeo. Tad Lucas got to show off her spectacular skills as a trick rider. Buck Lucas won the steer wrestling competition and was named world champion steer wrestler. The story goes that the Prince of Wales and the Queen of Spain were in attendance to watch the Wild West show from America.
When they weren’t traveling or performing, Buck and Tad Lucas made their home in the state of Texas. The couple built a house in Fort Worth where they met another couple with whom they partnered to form the Triangle Rodeo Company. The Triangle Company put on rodeos for several years.
Buck might have won the title of world champion steer wrestler, but his wife Tad was about to set on a path to becoming an American Western legend. Her trick riding became her signature event. But she also excelled in all the other events in which she entered.
Tad Lucas became the dominant star at the annual Madison Square Garden show. She won the trick riding competition in 1925 and 1926, and then again in 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931 and 1932. The most prestigious award of the day was the Metro-Goldwyn Meyer $10,000 silver trophy awarded for the All-Around Cowgirl of the Madison Square Garden event. Lucas won the award three times, after which it was retired permanently in her name for her outstanding stature as an all-around cowgirl.
Over the course of a professional performing career that is documented as lasting from 1920 to 1942, Lucas won every major award in women’s rodeo and trick riding. She won the coveted championship title for trick riding at the Cheyenne Frontier Days 6 times where she also won the bronc riding and relay race events. Lucas also won major prizes at the prestigious western events in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Fort Worth and Sidney, Australia.
Tad Lucas was the star of trick riding in her day. She was a brilliant performer and her skills amazed the crowds. Her performance would start out with a vault into the saddle from a standing position. She’d then send her horse into a gallop and lean out from the saddle.
Hanging in the upside-down position, Lucas would perform a series of drags – the Cossack, the Back and the Fender – as she trailed one or both hands through the dirt of the arena. A crowd favorite was her Under the Belly Crawl and the Hippodrome Stand that Lucas used to leave the arena, standing tall in the saddle, back arched and arms raised high above her head.
Lucas shared her love of trick riding with her daughter, Mitzi, who was born in 1934. (Lucas’ first daughter, Dorothy, did not participate in rodeo.) Baby Mitzi was a “tad” herself, weighing only 2 ½ pounds at birth. Her first bed, as the story goes, was a cotton lined shoebox and Tad used to carry her daughter around their ranch arena on horseback in the brim of her hat.
Mitzi Lucas was riding with her mother in the grand finales of performances before the age of 2. Mitzi was a natural on horseback, just like her mother.
Mitzi Lucas was said to have been introduced to the arena at the age of 5 months. By the age of 6, she was an accomplished trick rider who was called upon to fulfill contracts for the prominent shows in place of her injured mother who had shattered her arm in a fall. When Tad was able to perform again, three years later, mother and daughter became an act for years to come.
Lucas committed her life to women’s rodeo sports. When women’s events were removed from rodeo in the 1940’s, Lucas was a part of the group who formed the Girl’s Rodeo Association (now the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association) in 1948. It was the group’s goal to ensure a future for women in rodeo. Lucas’ prestige brought credibility to the newly formed association for which she served as officer, rodeo official, contestant, performer and clown until she retired from the organization in 1958.
The Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) was the very first professional sports association created by women for women. It started with a group of 38 ranch women from Texas. Today there are 3,000 members in the WPRA. Read more here: https://www.wpra.com/index.php/office/about-us
At the age of 62, Lucas rode her last bronc and her involvement in rodeo took on a new direction. She was a founder of the Rodeo Historical Society for which she served as president and director.
In 1967, Lucas was the first woman to be elected into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame. She was elected to the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 1978 and to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979. She is the only person to be honored by all three rodeo halls of fame.
Barbara “Tad” Barnes Lucas’ memory lives on in the award she established in her will – The Tad Lucas Memorial Award. The award was designed to honor women who excel in any field related to the Western Heritage.
Lucas died at the age of 87 on February 23, 1990. She lived out her life in the house she built with her husband Buck and is buried in Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park in Fort Worth, Texas.
