Redmond High grad Butch Knowles inducted into ProRodeo Hall of Fame

Published 2:00 pm Monday, July 31, 2023

Redmond High School graduate Butch Knowles was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame on July 15.

“That’s pretty humbling, holy cow,” said Knowles in a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association release. “This is the last thing that I ever thought would happen. It is quite an honor, it’s probably not the place that I feel like I should be. But it’s an honor to be thought of that way, it really is.”

Knowles was born in Klamath Falls and his family moved to the Redmond area when he was in the second grade. He began his rodeo career in the seventh grade and has never looked back.

“They had a junior rodeo in Redmond and me and my brother went,” he said. “I rode calves. I made it about two jumps, but that’s all it took. It grabbed me.”

Knowles, a 1973 graduate of Redmond High School, won the high school all-around title in 1973, went on to rodeo at Walla Walla Community College and got his PRCA card in 1974.

A saddle bronc rider as well, Knowles qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 1981, 1983 and 1986-87. He won the National Finals Rodeo average in 1987. Knowles’ titles include in Pendleton (1986, 1991), St. Paul, Calgary, and his first PRCA victory in Salinas, California, in 1974.

There was a time in his career when he would get on the back of a bull. He is one of the few to say he got a qualified ride on the notorious Oscar II. A ride that scored a 92 in Longview, Washington, many years ago.

Knowles is no stranger when it comes to hall of fames. He was inducted in the Pendleton Round-Up and Happy Canyon Hall of Fame in 2021, and the St. Paul Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2019.

The past three decades, Knowles has made a name for himself as a TV commentator, including being the color analyst for the NFR every year since 1988.

Knowles and his wife Mary lived for a time in Hermiston before moving to Heppner full time in 1988, where they raised their sons, Brian and Blake, who is a PRCA steer wrestler.

“The first night, it was about 6:30 and there was no one in the stands. After the bareback, we looked around and the stands were full. Everything that has come since then, David has built. It’s amazing.”

— Butch Knowles, co-founder of Farm-City Pro Rodeo