One of Colorado’s preeminent Black cowboys saddles up for another rodeo season
share
This article is part of ongoing production for “Black Cowboys,” an episode of Colorado Experience that will air on Rocky Mountain PBS October 9, 2025.
BYERS, Colo. — For 77-year-old Maurice “Mo Betta’” Wade, the backlit dust diffusing the summer sun at the July 4th Quint Valley Rodeo in Byers, Colorado is a sign of the season.
July is “Christmas for Cowboys,” according to Wade, a time of year when rodeos big and small pop up around the state.
Colorado has more rodeos sanctioned by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) than almost any other state, often more than two dozen in a year. A large portion of these events take place in July and August, and in some of the state’s smallest, rural towns (Byers has a population of about 1,800).
Wade’s summer lineup includes competitions in Byers, Arapahoe County, Estes Park, Greeley, and Winter Park, with a few senior pro shows mixed in between. This is the nomadic lifestyle of a professional rodeo cowboy. Some rodeo cowboys will compete in Southern Colorado in the morning and immediately drive several hours north to compete again that same evening.
“It’s a lifestyle you gotta’ love,” said Wade. He sat on the edge of his horse trailer using boot jacks to pull on his leather cowboy boots. “They’re for old people, so we don’t have to bend over,” he said.
Wade wore a yellow shirt with a Bill Picket Invitational Rodeo patch on his left breast and a U.S. Army Vietnam Vet patch on his right. His brown boots were dirty and his white cowboy hat faded, but the Bill Pickett Rodeo 40th anniversary belt buckle shimmered.
“Celebrating 40 Years” read the top buckle. Below: “The Greatest Show on Dirt.”
Wade often talks about his conversations with Lou Vason, the founder of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo, and his memories of competing in the very first rodeo in 1984.
The BPIR is named after Bill Pickett, a renowned Black cowboy and rodeo star credited with inventing “bulldogging,” or “steer wrestling,” where riders pursue and wrestle down a running cow.
“The Bill Pickett rodeo is one of the only African-American rodeos that travels across the country,” said Wade. “And as a result, a lot of other rodeos are popping up now, and we got kids coast to coast, and a lot of inner city kids too, being introduced and seeing that there are Black cowboys.”
As a child, Wade never knew there was such a thing as Black cowboys. He grew up in Michigan afraid of horses but inspired by film and television’s greatest Western heroes like Roy Rogers, the Cisco Kid, and the Lone Ranger.
Wade would visit his grandfather’s farm in Mississippi every summer, and he and his siblings would ride the mules, chase the bulls and pretend to be silver screen cowboys.
“When I was a kid, I used have a barrel, and I’d put a piece of cloth on it, and then I had some little rope stirrups and a broom handle sticking out of ground,” said Wade. “I used to swing my rope and pretend I was roping that broom handle.”
“So it goes back a long way, my passion for roping.”
Wade practices roping. Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
After high school, Wade served with the 101st Airborne Division in the Vietnam War. By the early 1970s he was assigned to the former Fitzsimmons Army Medical Center in Aurora, where he battled post-traumatic stress disorder.
He found solace in horses, and eventually, he made a return to roping.
Some Aurora-based cowboys introduced Wade to Henry Louis, a local military veteran turned rancher running a livery stable near Aurora. While working in roles with the U.S. Civil Service Commission and the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Wade would spend evenings on Louis’ ranch learning to rope professionally.
“I would have to rope a bale of hay 100 times a night until I got it figured out how to handle a loop and how to keep a loop open,” said Wade.
“So that’s basically how I got my start: with Henry.”
Through connections made with Henry, Wade found work on the Silver Buckle Ranch in Elizabeth. There, he could work with horses and he could practice roping calves daily, and before long, Wade was a regular competitor in local jackpots and rodeos.
Wade was still a burgeoning talent when Vason approached him with an idea of an all-Black rodeo.
“He’d never seen any Black cowboys,” said Wade, “so he started asking around and then he came to me because I was the only one that he knew of that had horses and [was] doing the cowboy thing.”
Historians trace the origin of Black cowboys back to American slavery when slave traders targeted specific African tribes familiar with cattle herding, like the Fulani tribe in modern-day Cameroon.
Inspired in part by post-Civil War emancipation and opportunity provided by the Homestead Act of 1862, many Americans — including Black Americans part of the Exoduster movement — migrated westward and filled open positions herding cows, ranching and assisting on long trail rides.
It is believed that in the late 19th and early 20th century, as many as one in four cowboys were Black. Some argue that the word “cowboy” derives from the derogatory use of the word “boy” to refer to Black workers while their white counterparts were called “cowhands.”
Wade said he was skeptical when he heard about Vason’s ambitions. But in 1984, Wade participated in the inaugural Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo in Denver.
Forty years later, now at the age of 77, Wade still competes in the BPIR and is proud to boast the impact and influence of the rodeo on the next generation of Black cowboys.
“A lot of this stuff is beginning to happen now when they attack diversity, inclusion and equity… that there’s nothing but writing us out of the books,” said Wade.
The Quint Valley Rodeo marked Wade’s return to the rodeo circuit after suffering a rib injury last year. Wade is also dealing with Type 2 diabetes. That’s all in addition to the fatigue that comes with hoisting a more than 40 pound saddle over his horse almost every day.
Undeterred, Wade said he plans on competing for as long as his body allows, both as a means of satiating his continued hunger for calf roping and prolonging his presence as an inspirational figure for up-and-coming Black cowboys and cowgirls.
Wade was the only Black cowboy competing at the Quint Valley Rodeo.
While preparing for his ride, Wade shook hands and hugged a half-dozen cowboys, families and young fans who recognized him from previous competitions.
One old friend, Brian Gillen (whose son competed in the rodeo) decried Wade for his celebrity and explained the origin of Wade’s nickname: the “Mo Betta’ Calf Roping” competition in Texas.
For the record, Wade’s horse — ”Beer Money” — is so named because he wins just enough to buy a beer and a hamburger, according to Wade.
And though “Maurice ‘Mo Betta’ Wade and his horse, Beer Money,” may sound like something pulled from a modern cowboy movie (and Wade has appeared in a couple of films due to his affiliation with the BPIR, including “The Return of Desperado” and “City Slickers”), Wade said he ropes and rides for the love of the sport, and not for the recognition.
“I still have this passion and desire to rope,” said Wade, “and I like to talk to people about the history of cowboys.
“We need all this history because it’s important.”
Wade rides his horse into the distance. Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.