COLUMN: Carillon Flashback July 23, 1965 – Crowds swell to 60,000 for “Big M” at Morris

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/07/2024 (675 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For three days in late July every year, the little town of Morris, which usually boasts a population of 1,500 men, women and children, swells to thousands upon thousands for Canada’s second largest rodeo, the Manitoba Stampede Exhibition, which replaced the town’s annual country fair a couple of years ago as the community’s major summer tourist event.

People poured in from all over the province and from the United States, as crowds totalling 60,000 flocked to Morris for three days last week for the western-style stampede that featured the best riders and toughest horses in the west. It was the second year for the Big M at Morris, and attendance climbed by 5,000 over the inaugural event, which had enjoyed three days of fine summer weather.

A greatly improved grandstand, entirely roofed in and seating 6,000, plus 5,000 bleachers and rush seats, provided better seating accommodations for the sellout, and near sell-out crowds, for afternoon rodeo and evening chuckwagon races.

Most of the cowboys, broncos and chuckwagon outfits came directly from the Calgary Stampede.

Buddy Heaton, the clowning cowboy from Kansas, whose main job is entertaining the crowd while keeping angry bulls away from fallen riders, got into the action himself Thursday and suffered an ankle injury in a tussle with a bronco. But Heaton, who is just as tough as the rest of the cowboys, was back for the rest of the “Big M”, hardly slowed down by the walking cast on his injured ankle.

He thrilled Morris crowds with his trick riding on a buffalo, while an understudy performed for him in some of his other acts in the rodeo ring.

Thursday’s rain at Morris churned the big corral into gooey gumbo, but the new covered grandstand gave the fans much-needed shelter. Friday’s heavy rain in Winnipeg had a somewhat dampening effect by slowing down expected city crowds, but the turnout for Day Three more than made up for lagging attendance.

Saturday’s fine weather drew a record crowd, filling all 11,000 seats at both afternoon and evening performances. Stampede management recorded 30,000 paid admissions for the third day of the “Big M”.

Sixteen chuckwagon outfits, most of them straight from the Calgary Stampede, helped to liven this year’s stampede, as they raced for the $4,000 stake in prize money. Coming out on top was the Newell Brothers outfit from Rocky Ford, Alta. The Maurice Melaney outfit from Regina won first prize in the pony chuckwagon races.

Alberta cowboys also took home most of the money in the rodeo events, winning bull riding, bareback riding, bronc riding and steer wrestling competitions while the calf-roping championship went to a cowboy from Regina, Sask.

Wagon master Cliff Clegget brought his 16 years of experience at running chuckwagon races across the country to Morris, as well.

Excitement for the upcoming Manitoba Stampede and Exhibition began to rise in Morris a month before the event, when Clegget arrived in town with his 50 horses.

He is from Melfort, Sask. and began chuckwagon racing as a hobby. His start in the chuckwagon racing business came in 1949, when he presented his chuckwagon show at the Calgary Stampede. Since then, it has grown to a big business operation, with Cleggett handling chuckwagon shows across the country.

Prior to this year’s “Big M”, Clegget told The Carillon he was proud to be part of Canada’s second largest stampede.