Fox Valley: Bull riding: Where grizzled vets are only 32

Bull riding: Where grizzled vets are only 32
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Courier News on 07/19/2010 07:17:00

THE VETERAN: Rick Ringer from a farm in Florida. He has been riding bucking
bulls for 18 years now, but is just coming back after a February incident when a
stomping bull crushed one of his eye sockets and required seven metal plates to
be inserted into his face.

THE KID: Lee Newville from a dairy farm near Sparta, Mich. Just ending 18 months
of active service with the Army, he grew up being taught about "bullfighting,"
as he calls it, by relatives from Wyoming. He's seen "a few broken legs and
broken arms and concussions," he says, "but that can happen in any sport. It's
no worse than playing football." Now, he's 19 and ready to challenge the stars.
THE BOSS: After growing up on a farm outside DeKalb, Bob Sauber, of St. Charles,
rode bulls himself for 20 years before founding the Professional Championship
Bullriding organization in 2006. The PCB has contests scheduled in 15 Midwest
cities this year, culminating in a grand-championship in the Sears Arena next
February.
Ringer, Newville and 12 other would-be bull-riding champs, mostly from such
hardcore Old West states as Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana, came together in
front of some 400 spectators Friday as the Kane County Fair hosted the sixth
stop on Sauber's 2010-2011 PCB tour.
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