Submitted
While it’s not a genetic trait, storytelling can be passed from father to son.
It’s possible that’s how Ted Harbin developed a passion for writing. Harbin, a longtime journalist who has focused his attention to rodeo stories for the past 20 years, has authored "World’s Toughest Rodeo: How One Cowboy Blazed a Trail for Western Sports."
From W. Brand Publishing and set for release Nov. 11, the book explains how Steve Gander took his meager start in life to be one of the sport’s most successful entrepreneurs.
“Steve Gander’s story fascinates me,” said Harbin, originally from Leoti and a graduate of Trego Community High School in WaKeeney.
He now operating TwisTed Rodeo in Maryville, Missouri. “Having spent time with Steve over the last few years, I love hearing his stories about creating World’s Toughest Rodeo and the things he was doing 40 years ago that nobody had even considered.”
Harbin collaborated with Gander over the last two years to pen the memoir. With it, he added another level of storytelling, an attribute he obtained from his father, Dean.
“My dad loved to tell jokes and connect with people that way,” Harbin said. “Sometimes his jokes weren’t the most appropriate, but that’s OK; sometimes the content of my stories wouldn’t be appropriate without a little self-editing.”
Harbin began his journalism career as a student at Pratt Community College, then carried that on to a degree in mass communication from Fort Hays State University. Over a 22-year span, he worked at newspapers in Smith Center, Atwood, Hays, Dodge City, Hutchinson, Stillwater, Oklahoma; Guymon, Oklahoma; Oklahoma City; and Maryville.
He developed TwisTed Rodeo in 2005 and directs most of his attention to producing content for and about the sport. He serves as media director for several events and travels the country doing so, from southeast Texas to southern Idaho. He is one of eight who has been recognized with media award from both of rodeo’s premier sanctioning bodies, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association.
“In my lifetime, I have covered everything from school board meetings to murder trials to soccer games,” he said. “I believe every experience I’ve had in my career was instrumental in writing this book. Of course, the subject-matter helped. Steve is a storyteller, too, and that alone was intriguing to me. Allowing him and the others to help with details of his brand of rodeo was an incredible experience.”
When his parents needed help on their small, family farm in northeastern Iowa, Steve Gander was the first one to help. It comes with being the oldest of seven children raised on the rugged and hilly terrain in that part of the state. There were hogs to feed and crops to manage, and every helping hand was important to the family’s bottom line.
“We were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor,” Gander said in the memoir. “Everybody in northeastern Iowa was poor at the time.”
There may not have been much financially, but the rewards were plenty, which is how Gander became one of the most prolific promotors and producers in rodeo history. The biography details how Gander forged his own brand through work ethic and innovation.
Gander was raised in the 1950s and ’60s. Faith and family were foremost in the household, but there was work to be done. Whether he was slipping and sliding through the muck of a hog pen or driving the tractor – he first got behind the wheel of the family’s John Deere 50 at age 7 – Gander’s foundation was formed.
It carried him to extraordinary things. He produced hundreds of events, including the return of rodeo to Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Command Performance Rodeo, a special and spectacular event produced specifically for President Ronald Reagan and thousands of other dignitaries in 1983 near Washington, D.C.
“After two decades in newspaper and another two utilizing my journalism skills with TwisTed Rodeo, this book is like a dream come true,” Harbin said. “Steve gave me the opportunity to step outside my comfort zone and create something that will outlive me, much like he did with World’s Toughest Rodeo. This is a work of passion, not only for the sport of rodeo, which Steve and I share, but also for the storytelling that I love so much.
“I have been able to tell some incredible stories in my lifetime. This one might just be my favorite.”