The Prison Rodeo Turned October into a Huntsville Institution

The Texas Prison Rodeo started in 1931 on a field behind the Huntsville Unit, known as "The Walls." Marshall Lee Simmons ran the prison system and helped plan Sunday shows in October. They gave prisoners recreation and entertained staff and their families. Within two years, the crowd grew from a handful of outsiders to almost 15,000. Wooden stands and paid tickets followed.

The arena was the visible part of a much larger job. Prisoners on farms rounded up steers. Women at the Goree Unit sewed striped uniforms. Printers and writers at The Walls made souvenir programs. Leatherworkers tooled saddles and chaps. Rodeo money paid the bills and fed an education and recreation fund. That fund bought textbooks, dentures, and Christmas turkeys.

Huntsville moved with the crowd. Residents opened restaurants, stores, and even driveways to rodeo traffic. The show also carried real danger. Two prisoners died in the arena, and others suffered broken bones and injuries. Pride, pay, fame, and risk all occupied the same dusty ring.

Engineers condemned the stadium after the 1986 rodeo. The prison system could not raise $500,000 for repairs, and revival attempts in the early 1990s failed. The Texas Prison Museum keeps the prison system's wider history in view nearby. The rodeo itself ended because the old concrete and steel could no longer carry the October crowds.