Two local cowboys will be honored this month at the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA) Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming. The NIRA is honoring the College Cowboys that competed in the first NIRA Championships Rodeo held at the San Francisco Cow Palace 60 years ago.
Cotton Rosser of Marysville and Dan Rogers of Live Oak were big winners in that and other rodeos.
Rosser won Reserve All Around Cowboy at the first NIRA Championship Rodeo. He was rodeoing for Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
At the 1950 NIRA Finals Rodeo, held at Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum, Fort Worth, Texas, Cotton won the All-Around Cowboy and the Steer Wrestling Championship.
As a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association stock contractor, Rosser was inducted into the PRCA Hall of Fame at Colorado Springs, Colorado and the Cowboys Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Rogers placed second in the first go-around of the bareback riding at the first 1949 NIRA Championship Rodeo. He was rodeoing for Pierce Jr. College, Canoga Park, CA.
He transferred to Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1950 and won the 1950 Reserve National Finals NIRA Championship in Bull Riding at the finals and for the year.
Rosser is still very active as owner of the Flying U Cowboy Corral and a western store in Marysville. He furnishes much of the bucking stock for both the professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Professional Bull Riders Finals at Las Vegas, Nevada.
Rogers operates a cattle, hay and rice ranch in Live Oak.
