Volume 10 , Issue 12

Bull Fights of Alva, OK

"A little known fact about Alva that I think folks would find interesting. You may have published this information yourself or included a contributor's recollection in an earlier e-zine, if so disregard, but if not you might ask your readers if they remember the Alva bull-fights.

My grandparents, Lee and Gracie Wagner, lived on Ridgeway Road (only a RR at the time) about a quarter of a mile north of highway 64. The rodeo arena was located where Panhandle Eastern's office building now sets. The years--late 40`s early 50`s. Grandmother Wagner was a huge rodeo fan, being raised on her parents ranch/farm five miles west of Avard, the second oldest of a family with 10 boys. The Greer family broke and trained a lot of horses, so Gracie came by a love for the sport early.

While staying with my grandparents one afternoon Gracie mentioned that there was going to be a bull-fight that afternoon. Not knowing what a bull-fight was I climbed a tall cedar and could barely see what I believed to be the event. I remember dust mostly and seeing someone close to the bull kicking up the dust, but not much more. Later Granny, as I called her, said that Kenner shut the bull-fight down, Kenner (Ken Greer) was one of her brothers and sheriff of Woods County at the time, because bull-fighting was illegal in Oklahoma.

I would like to know if there are others that might recall more specific information, such as how many occured, how often, who sponsored the event??" -- Marvin W.
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