HASTINGS —
Through choice and chance, Rex Dunn has spent much of his life dodging death.
Side-stepping the grave began when Dunn became a rodeo cowboy as a teenager. He continued to elude death during a legendary career as first a rodeo clown and then a bullfighter, two danger-filled activities that led to Dunn being inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
And the fact he was in Colorado Springs, Colo., to join Paul Mayo, John McBeth, Denny Flynn and Bennie Beutler as the rodeo hall’s 2010 induction class was just more testament to Rex Dunn’s ability to stay a half-step ahead of the Grim Reaper.
See, in 2003, word filtered through the rodeo network and the area surrounding his home in
Hastings that Dunn’s days were numbered — not in weeks, months or years, but perhaps in mere hours.
In an accident on a horse, Dunn suffered kidney and spleen injuries so traumatic that his chances of survival were first listed as “no chance.”
Somehow or other, Dunn survived. He eventually went back to work at Coyote Hills Arena, teaching bullfighting and breeding the fierce Mexican fighting bulls that have become a staple on the Professional Bullfighters Inc. circuit.
Those bulls and his ground-breaking work as one of the creators of the pro bullfighting circuit were among the reasons Dunn set some history at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame induction, where he became the first person to be placed in the hallowed hall in three different categories — clown, bullfighter and stock contractor.
In the years following the accident, Dunn seemed to be making pretty good physical progress. But in 2007, he began experiencing acute pain.
“The pain got so bad that my doctor did an MRI, and the MRI found the mass. I had cancer where (the original accident) had busted my kidney and spleen,” Dunn recalled. “The cancer was in my kidney, and when it busted, it spread everywhere.”
At that time, Dunn’s doctor was predicting the worst.
“My doctor said I would be gone in three years,” he said.
“I said, ‘You want to bet?’ And the doctor said, ‘As a matter of fact, I do.’”
As Dunn’s presence during an interview on Friday proved, “The doctor lost, and I need to collect from him.”
A realist, Dunn will be the first to admit he needs to collect that marker fairly soon. He’s dodged death so many times, but as Dunn noted, “(The cancer is) in my brain now, and it’s terminal.”
Even as those words come out of his mouth, though, Dunn was looking ahead. “I still have a lot to look forward to, things like (going into the hall of fame),” he said.
Dunn’s qualifications for Hall of Fame entry were unchallenged. His induction was eminent.
Dunn switched from rodeo cowboy to clown, “Because I was too lazy to work and too scared to steal!” he said, adding, “That’s an old clown joke.”
He worked as a featured clown at three National Finals Rodeos and two Canadian Finals Rodeos, and In 16 years as a pro bullfighter, he worked 13 circuit finals.
As a stock contractor and bullfighting mentor, Dunn’s name became synonymous with quality. “In the opinion of many in the bullfighting business,” pro bullfighter Trever Hamsher once wrote in a blog, “Rex Dunn of Waurika, Oklahoma has the best bullfighting school, especially for those who are just starting out.”
Despite the legacy Dunn’s built, the 54-year-old was humbled by the company he was keeping in the Hall of Fame Class of 2010.
“I’ve rodeoed with all of them except Mayo over the years,” he said. “They’re all great men, who’ve done a lot for rodeo.”
In the fight to stay alive, some of Dunn’s grit generates from a personal goal — he wants to see sons Jace and Kyote graduate from Waurika High School. He’s halfway there; Jace graduated in May and Kyote is a sophomore. “If I can watch both of them graduate, I’d be tickled,” Dunn said.
Dunn doesn’t plan to go without a battle, and that tougher-than-boot-leather attitude has played a role in his survival. So have his “rocks” — wife Tracy and the two sons have stepped in to take control of most of the family business, which includes contracting livestock and maintaining the arena.
The family assists in planning events, like the Waurika Chamber Ranch Rodeo and the Challenge of Champions, which is a Professional Bullfighters-sanctioned event Dunn began in the 1980s and then revived two years ago as a fund-raiser for the Waurika FFA.
“The boys have been doing a great job,” Dunn noted.
Family and friends throughout the nation and from within the international “family” of rodeo and bullfighting have found countless ways to support the man Hall of Fame announcer Clem McSpadden dubbed “Mr. Smooth.” When there’s been a need, someone has stepped forward.
“We have a strong church family (at Addington Baptist), who have been very, very supportive,” Dunn noted. “We’ve also gotten lots of community support from the folks around Waurika and Hastings and a lot of other places.”
Some assistance has come from unexpected places, as Dunn related in describing how the entire family was able to attend the Hall of Fame ceremony in Colorado.
“I need to thank Conner’s Auto (Group) for donating a nice new vehicle for us to drive (to Colorado Springs),” he said. “The Hall of Fame was going to fly Tracy and me, but I didn’t want to go up without the boys.
“If Conner’s hadn’t donated a vehicle, the whole family wouldn’t have been able to go.”
Most of all, Dunn said, the highest thanks goes to a higher source, not just for the honor of becoming a Hall of Fame member, but in helping him dodge death.
“I’m alive because the good Lord has been watching over me,” he said. “It’s just that plain and simple.”
— Jeff Kaley is editor of the Waurika News-Democrat and a Duncan Banner columnist. He can be reached at 580-228-2316 or e-mailed at jeff.kaley@duncanbanner.com.
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