Rodeo riders are a special breed of men. They are tough, hard-bitten cowboys who compete against the horses that are trying to kill them. Yet the men and the horses are not really enemies. The riders respect these animals, who go “sunfishing” high in the air and come down stiff-legged, because they cannot stand anyone up on their backs.
Pete Knight was probably the greatest saddle bronc rider of his day. He began to ride on bucking broncs when he was 15 years old, in 1919. His first ride in a small-time rodeo won him second money. Soon he was taking his turn in the big rodeo circuit. In 1924 he split first and second money at the big rodeo in Calgary. Sooner or later he got the best of every bronc on the circuit…all except one.
The horse’s name was Midnight, and he was a 1,200-pound bundle of dynamite. Pete Knight tried to ride Midnight three times, but each time he couldn’t stay on. His best effort was in 1932 at Cheyenne. Pete was aboard Midnight for seven seconds. But then the bronc let go with a shoulder whip that knocked his rider into the dust. Pete’s friends tried to claim he stayed on for the full ten seconds, but the timer said no.
The great rivalry between man and horse ended in 1935. Midnight’s legs began to go bad. Then in 1936 the great bucking bronco died. The rodeo riders who had never been able to stay up on the horse made sure Midnight was given a decent burial. They had a monument built to him in Plattsville, Colorado, and the poem on the monument expressed their respect and love for the ornery bronc.
Underneath this sod lies a great bucking horse.
There never lived a cowboy he couldn’t toss.
His name was Midnight, and his coat black as coal.
If there’s a hoss heaven, please God, rest his soul.
Only a year later, Pete Knight also died. He was riding Duster, a particularly mean mount. The bucking bronc lost his footing and fell on his rider. Knight got to his feet. But then he collapsed and died before he reached the hospital. It was the end of one of the strangest sports rivalries.
Modern hockey players are supposed to be rugged men with great stamina. But hockey moves so fast that players spend only a couple of minutes a time on the ice, then rest on the bench. Yet hockey was just as fast in the old days, and there was one player who really had stamina. During the 1922-23 season, Frankie Nighbor of Ottawa–nicknamed “The Pembroke Peach”–played every minute of six consecutive games at center. And he averaged a goal per game during his streak!
On December 7, 1967, John Ferguson of Montreal got into a fight with Gary Bergman of the Detroit Red Wings. Referee Art Skov imposed three minor penalties on Ferguson: for charging, high-sticking and slashing. Bergman was hit with two minor penalties for slashing and charging. Altogether, that one play accounted for five penalties.
From The Giant Book of Strange But True Sports Stories by Howard Liss. Illustrations by Joe Mathieu.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Knight_(rodeo)
I thought the answer was Ben Johnson.
At some point since the days of Pete Knight and Midnight, the rules changed so that riders only have to be on their mount for 8 seconds, not ten.
When I used to work in audio, I worked radio broadcasts for a few rodeos. During one in particular, I watched a rider get thrown from the horse and straight into the TV camera pit at the base of the ring. Both the rider and the cameraman were pretty banged up.