DUNCAN — One more time Rex Dunn filled the grandstands with people delighted by his antics and amazed by his courage.

This time, though, about 1,000 folks gathered at Coyote Hills Arena to say good-bye to the legendary Waurika High graduate and Hastings resident.

Years of being bounced around by bulls couldn’t stop him. A life-threatening horse accident in 2003 couldn’t stop him. On Oct. 8, cancer finally stopped Rex Dunn — but not without a five-year battle.

“He was the toughest person I ever saw” was a phrase repeated often on Thursday, Oct. 11, when the funeral service in the arena Dunn constructed was visited by a diverse crowd that included family, friends, professional rodeo cowboys and bullfighters, rodeo administrators and people who simply admired the skills, personality and grit of the 56-year-old man nicknamed “Mr. Smooth.”

It was an outpouring of affection that was nationwide in scope. “It’s a who’s who in the rodeo industry here today. There are a lot of cowboys shedding tears,” said former bull rider and bullfighter Jim McClain, who was among many considering Dunn an inspiration and friend.

Rex Dunn didn’t invent the occupation of rodeo clown. But after being encouraged by longtime friend and adviser Rick Young, Dunn became the transitional figure in rodeo clowns becoming bullfighters; death-defying necessities in the rodeo ring, who use athleticism and slapstick to protect bull riders.

Dunn’s reputation and the evolution of bullfighting also got a boost in national attention from a documentary on rodeo clowns filmed by Ramsey Telly, who was among those at the funeral.

“My first film was on rodeo clowns and Discovery (Channel) picked it up and it started my career,” Telly said. “Rex was a great and he told me something I’ve never forgotten and I’ve applied it to my own life.

“He said, ‘It’s the not the fight with the bull that’s hard, it’s the fight between your ears that’s hard to win.’”

Dunn’s ability to win the battle between his ears led to becoming the first rodeo figure to be inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in three different categories — clown, bullfighter and stock contractor.

The most recent induction was in 2010, when Dunn had already accepted the cancer he carried was terminal — accepted it, but with no intention of going out meekly.

Part of Dunn’s success as a rodeo clown stemmed from a philosophy that he was not only assisting in keeping cowboys safe in the rodeo ring, he was also putting on a show for the folks outside the ring.

During the process of compiling a resume for the 2010 induction, Dunn explained how he went from rodeo cowboy to clown: “It was because I was too lazy to work and too scared to steal!”

Then he grinned and added, “That’s an old clown joke.”

After retiring from bullfighting, Dunn accelerated the process of becoming one of the country’s premier suppliers and trainers of Mexican fighting bulls, working out of the Coyote Hills facility that McClain recalled had a modest start.

“Rex and I have been friends since I was 19. That was 31 years ago,” the owner of Two Bulls Group said. “I helped him build the first arena on that hill, when there was nothing else there. The first ‘arena’ is still there, but it’s the back pen now. Back then, it just one pen that was our practice pen.

“I also was with him when he bought his first fighting bulls and when he put on the first bullfight.

“He helped me so much in teaching me about the business.”

As his health failed, Dunn also taught the business to the three people closest to him — wife Tracie and sons Jace and Kyote. The trio, who Dunn referred to as his “rocks,” will continue the business.

“One of the things I loved about Rex was that as great as he was in the arena, he was a great person out of the arena,” McClain said. “He did a lot of things for people what no one knows about; helped a lot of different people in different ways.

“He loved his family, and he loved his friends. He was the toughest person I’ve ever seen, but he had a big heart.”