WPRA NEWS

2026 ProRodeo Hall of Fame Class Announced

By Ann Bleiker

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado – It seems only fitting as we close out Women’s History Month for 2026 that we announce two WPRA members who will be enshrined into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame this July with eight representatives from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Mary Burger, the 2006 and 2016 WPRA World Champion, and Loretta Manuel, the 1963 and 1967 WPRA World Champion will be inducted into the Barrel Racing category. They will join the following on the PRCA side – Jerome Davis (bull riding), the late Butch Myers (steer wrestling), Ike Sankey (stock contractor), Keith Isley (contract personnel), Jeff Medders and Bobby Goodspeed (notables), Killer Bee (Livestock) and San Angelo Stock Show and Rodeo (rodeo committee). Troy Weekley will also be honored with the Ken Stemler Pioneer Award during the Cowboy Ball on July 17.

While winning one world title in the WPRA is a major feat, both these ladies have tasted that victory twice and now they will be honored for their accomplishments in the professional rodeo arena with induction into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs. The other things they have in common are they were both born in August in the State of Indiana.

It seems only fitting for Burger to be going into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame 10 years after her last world title (2016) because after all her second world title came 10 years after her first (2006). Burger, at the young age of 68 years and 4 months in 2016, became the oldest world champion, male or female, a record that still stands today.

“I am flabbergasted and a little in awe of this news,” stated Burger upon learning of her induction from WPRA President Heidi Schmidt. “When Heidi told me, I wasn’t sure I heard her correctly. This is just such an honor. I am at a loss for words.”

She was born August 18, 1948, in Decatur, Indiana, but now makes her home in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. Horses were commonly used on the family farm and viewed as a tool. One of six children, Burger, was diagnosed at a young age with Perthes disease in both hips, a condition that causes inflammation and arthritis-like symptoms. The disease rendered her unable to walk and she required crutches. As a result, her father bought her a pony that served as her transportation until she was 10.

Burger was able to recover from the disease with treatment, and it’s believed that the horseback riding helped her hips spread, allowing her to heal.

She first made a name for herself in the AQHA ranks winning the world titles in junior barrel racing and pole bending in 1974 aboard a horse named High Bars Wimpy. Burger would add seven more AQHA World Titles in the barrel racing (1985-86, 1995, 2001-03, 2005) aboard three different horses Showum The Gold, Miss Mergie and Rare Fred before turning her attention to the ProRodeo ranks.

Burger joined the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association in 1985, when she moved to Oklahoma with her husband, Kerry, but just dabbled in the ProRodeo ranks until 2006. That year a horse named Rare Fred carried her to her first WPRA world title. She not only etched her name in the record books for the 2006 world title, but she also became the oldest world champion in the WPRA at the age of 58.

            “It used to bother me when people would talk about age and not being able to do things because of age, but then when I made it to the NFR (for the first time) and all the different fans that would tell me how much of an inspiration I was. It changed the way I looked at it,” said Burger. “I am just thrilled to be able to do what I love and glad that I can serve as an inspiration.”

            Burger would qualify for the Wrangler NFR two more times (2008-09) with Fred. In 2010, Fred was sold and so began Burger’s search for the next great ride. Enter a buckskin gelding registered Sadiefamouslastwords, known as Mo.

            “I have trained all my life and have had lots of top-notch horses come through, so I knew I had it in me to train another great one after Fred,” said Burger in 2016. Brad Leiblong, a futurity trainer and horse trader, had sent horses to Burger in the past and he found a 2-year-old that he wanted to trade for, so she asked him to send a photo.

            “Once I saw the photo there was just something about him and I knew I wanted him, so we made the trade,” beamed Burger, who traded an open horse for Mo. “It was the best trade I have ever made in my entire life.”

            Mo took to the ProRodeo circuit like a champ, collecting his first big win at RodeoHouston and followed that up a few months later with the title at the Calgary Stampede. The first week of August, Burger surpassed Lindsay Sears’ record for most money won prior to the NFR with $185,439. Sears set the record in 2008 with $184,567. Burger would set a then regular season record earnings mark with $190,977 and would become just the third WPRA contestant in Wrangler National Finals Rodeo history to wear the No. 1 back number, joining Charmayne James and Sherry Cervi.

            Burger would finish the 2016 season with $277,554 in earnings capturing her second gold buckle at her fourth and final NFR.

Loretta Manuel
Loretta Manuel won the 1963 and 1967 barrel racing world championship aboard a black horse registered Full of Pep, that she simply called Spade.

“I never expected to get a call like that,” stated Manuel when asked her thoughts upon learning about her induction. “I remember when the ladies started being inducted for barrel racing. I have loved rodeo my whole life. I just have no words to describe this feeling right now.”

Manuel, born August 19, 1939, in Winamac, Indiana, is well known for her accomplishments both aboard barrel horses and jumping horses.  She qualified for the National Finals Rodeo a total of 9 times (1962-67, 1969-1971), winning the coveted WPRA World Championship twice with a reserve finish in 1965. She partially credits her success in rodeo to her days as a teen performer in Wild West shows, in which she did trick riding and Roman riding.

            She transitioned from trick riding to barrel racing shortly after getting Spade as he was fast and agile, so she thought he was well suited for the cloverleaf pattern. She trained him and believes they only hit a barrel twice during his whole career. They captured the RodeoHouston title in 1968, the second year it was held at the Astrodome. Spade also spent some of his career as a bulldogging horse and she thought that made him tougher when it came to the barrel race.

In addition to her world titles another highlight of her career was meeting two U.S. presidents.

            “Harry Truman, who was a former president at the time, presented me with my first championship belt buckle, and I later met president-yet-to-be John F. Kennedy,” she said.

            She retired from rodeo in the 1970s but remained active in the equestrian scene when she began working at Cloudline Hounds Hunt, which is a British-style fox hunting group in Celeste, Texas, where she currently resides.

            Manuel is also known for giving to others. As a teacher she tried to pass along some of her champion mindset.

            “One of the things I would teach was to ‘learn how to lose,’ and by that, I mean they have to learn how to persist after failing at something,” she explained. “They were not allowed to say, ‘I can’t.’ They have to learn to persist at improving.”

            In November 2021 she was amongst the sixth class to be inducted into the All Cowboy & Arena Champions Hall of Fame, an internet-based Hall of Fame, created to help preserve and promote rodeo history.

On June 5, 2022, in Kingston, Texas, she was honored when the community mounted a permanent sign on State Highway 69 honoring her accomplishments.

She now adds ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee to her resume at the age of 86.

The WPRA first began inducting members to the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2017 and since that time a total of 18 members (including this year’s class) have been inducted along with two world champion horses (doesn’t include Scamper as he was inducted in 1996).

Full information on the PRCA inductees can be found at www.prorodeo.com.

The 2026 ProRodeo Hall of Fame Inductions are scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. MT on July 18 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Editor’s Note: The information enclosed in this release is courtesy of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA) for media use. However, if you reprint any of the following information verbatim in your publication, or if you read it verbatim on a radio broadcast, please mention that the information is courtesy of the WPRA.

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