Marty Wood

Martin Roy (Marty) Wood is a celebrated rodeo cowboy from Bowness, Calgary, in the province of Alberta, Canada.

Marty was born in 1933 in Carstairs, Alberta, to Dorothy and Harry Wood. His great grandfather was Henry Wise Wood, the founding president of the United Farmers of Alberta, who had settled in Carstairs in 1905. Marty's family moved to Bowness, then a small hamlet just outside Calgary, in 1940 or 1941, and he attended school there. His parents built a house and opened the Wood's Riding Academy, where Marty learned to break, ride and show horses. He took up rodeo in the early 1950s and soon specialized in Saddle broncs. He won his first professional rodeo championship in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1953.[1]

During the fifties and sixties, Wood was one of the best Saddle Bronc riders in the United States and Canada, winning at all the major rodeos and, when he didn't win outright, often coming in a close second. He was Canadian Champion Saddle Bronc Rider in 1954, 1955 and 1963, World Champion in 1958, 1964 and 1966,[2] and won the Calgary Stampede a total of five times, in 1954, 1957, 1961, 1964 and 1965. He also won at the Cheyenne, MadisonSquare Garden, San Francisco Cow Palace, Fort Worth, Houston, Salinas, Boston Garden, and Oklahoma City rodeos.

Wood was married to Jean Routh in the 1950s and the couple had one son, Chip. He was divorced in the late 1960s. During his career, Wood suffered many injuries, including seven broken legs, fractures of both feet and ankles, broken ribs and a broken collarbone. Because of the cumulative effect of his injuries, he retired in 1974, going on to train quarter and thoroughbred horses for racing and jumping.[3]

Marty Wood was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1991, the Canadian Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in 1994,[4] the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2004, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2008.[5] He now lives in Pendleton, Oregon.

Notes

  1. ↑ Bowness Our Village in the Valley, Bowness Historical Society, 2005, pp. 273-4. ISBN 1-55383-094-6
  2. ↑ http://www.worldofrodeo.com/stories/prcahistorysaddlebroncchamps.htm Retrieved February 5, 2011
  3. ↑ http://www.hypokritical.com/inductees/martywood.htm Retrieved February 5, 2011
  4. ↑ http://www.albertasportshalloffame.com/default.aspx?p=member&mid=303 Retrieved February 5, 2011
  5. ↑ http://www.nationalcowboymuseum.org/info/MediaRelease.aspx?ID=211 Retrieved February 5, 2011, and Bowness Our Village in the Valley, Bowness Historical Society, 2005, p 274. ISBN 1-55383-094-6
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