Somewhere, in between winning the steer wrestling event and placing second in team roping at the Stavely Pro Indoor Rodeo, Cochrane’s Tanner Milan found time to help host the first-ever Hoover Hays Memorial steer wrestling jackpot.
Obviously, he had help from brothers Straws and Baillie, and Milan Ranch patriarch and Canadian Pro Rodeo Association president Murry Milan.
They hosted the event May 9-10 to commemorate Gerald “Hoover” Hays, a career cowboy from Rocky Mountain House who exemplified everything cowboy. The former CPRA steer wrestler, and 2013 CPRA Douglas Lake Cowboy of the Year, was literally the cowboy’s cowboy.
He passed away Feb. 4 at age 58.
“It’s something Hoover always really liked and looked forward to going to, was deals like this,” said Tanner Milan of the Hays Memorial, “where you got to see lots of bulldogging runs and everyone around having a good time. He really enjoyed that. That was one of the main reasons we done it for him.”
Hays’s sons, steer wrestlers Rowdy and J.D., attended the event and “I think they each made a little money,” Milan quipped.
Sixty-seven cowboys were at the Hays Memorial steer wrestling jackpot at the Milan Ranch just outside Cochrane. Ponoka’s Chance Butterfield won it with another Ponoka cowboy, Walker Guthrie, winning the high school event.
But the event was more about Hays’s legacy than who won.
Hoover Hays was a pro steer wrestler before hazing (guiding steers for wrestlers) at rodeos in Canada and the U.S. He was revered for his selfless generosity and commitment to rodeo. It’s why Milans created the Hays Memorial and will continue to host the event annually.
“It was a pretty good time,” Tanner Milan, who’s off to rodeos in California and B.C. this week, said. Tanner’s also on the steer wrestling card for this year’s Calgary Stampede. “We just kind of threw it together in a couple of months here. We’re planning on bigger and better for next year.
“Lots of stories told and quite a few beers drank. It was just a great atmosphere. Everyone had a good time.
“Damn sure it’s something Hoover would have liked.”
It’s why the Hoover Hays Memorial steer wrestling jackpot was thrown together in the first place.
