Sean C. Morgan
After suffering a severe injury five years ago, Leif Erickson of Sweet Home is getting in shape to pursue his passion: riding bulls in rodeos, again.
He had hoped to get back at it this year, but as rodeos were gearing up for the 2020 season, the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation or postponement of large gatherings, including many area rodeos.
After about five years on the sidelines, riding bulls again is almost like starting over.
Erickson, 29, started riding in Northwest Pro Rodeo Association rodeos at age 12, including appearances in the Sweet Home Rodeo.
He got his start in rodeos at about age 6 in the mutton bustin’ events and then moved on to calves. He decided to try junior bulls and won the Basin Junior Rodeo in Klamath Falls in 2006.
“That was the year I decided ‘I’m riding bulls,’ just as my cousin (Robert Havley of Redmond) was riding,” Erickson said. Erickson grew up watching Robert and his younger brother, Joe Havley, compete.
Erickson said he moved to Sweet Home in the seventh grade, but spent summers with his grandpa in Lakeview. About the only thing to do there is rodeo, and his grandfather told Erickson if he wanted to pursue a sport, it should be summer rodeo.
Erickson entered his first NPRA show and got on a bull that “was as wide as the chute,” he said. “I got bucked off that bull quick.”
That show wasn’t full, so Erickson was allowed to draw another ride. He did better riding that bull, but he blew off his feet and went off.
“I popped out of the dust storm,” he recalled. He said he thought, “That was fun! The adrenaline rush, everything just took off. I loved the crowd. When you ride, your head, everything goes sideways.
“The only person I could hear was my cousin Robert (yelling from the chute). Everybody would just fade away as soon as the ride started.”
It was a learning process.
“My first year, I didn’t do good at all.”
In junior high and high school, he enjoyed a variety of other sports. In junior high, while home- schooled, he participated in football, basketball, wrestling, baseball and track. In high school, he played football. He tried wrestling his freshman year, but that conflicted with rodeo.
His grades started slipping, so his parents gave him an ultimatum and told him to focus on one sport. He chose rodeo.
Baseball was his all-time favorite sport, he said, “ever since I was old enough to play T-ball.”
He also rode in the Sweet Home Rodeo while in high school.
“It was my freshman year,” Erickson said. “I was the only kid in Sweet Home with a cowboy hat.”
Other students told Erickson that Sweet Home had a rodeo, heckling him a bit, and asked if he was going to be in it.
“I said, ‘yeah,'” Erickson said. They all showed up to watch him along with then-science teacher and football coach Rob Younger, known to students as “Older Younger.”
Erickson said he rode 7.4 seconds before he got hung up and thrown. The bull chased him, and he jumped onto the fence, right in front of his schoolmates, with a big grin: “Whoo! That was fun!”
He rode in the Sweet Home Rodeo until it ended in 2011. He said he tried with a couple of others to keep it going, but they couldn’t find enough support. He would still like to bring the annual event back to town.
After graduating from Sweet Home High School, Erickson continued to rise through the ranks of bull riding. He made the finals at Sisters when he was 23 or 24, he said. He decided to try for the next levels in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the Professional Bull Riders.
“I put in for my permit. They give you X amount of time to win a certain amount of money – to prove your worth. I ended up getting in both of them.”
He was asked to participate at a jackpot bull riding show in Jefferson. Erickson’s cousin raises bulls and had provided bulls for the event.
Erickson’s first bull ran off on him, he said. That means the bull doesn’t buck. It just runs out, with no flash to it, leading to very low scoring.
Because the event had asked Erickson to come, organizers offered to let him draw again if he paid the fee again. He agreed, as long as the other competitors were good with it. They were, and Erickson drew his cousin’s bull, Razzle Dazzle, a gentle bull that would typically buck riders off and then walk straight to the out gate.
“As ready as I thought I was, I wasn’t ready,” Erickson said. “We made the first couple jumps look real good, but he caught me at the end of my arm.”
The bull launched Erickson over his shoulder like a lawn dart, Erickson said. While he was regaining his feet, the bull stomped on his head, crushing Erickson’s helmet.
He ended up in Salem Hospital.
Erickson said he could hear the doctors telling his then-wife, who was pregnant with their oldest son, that he was in a coma and they didn’t know when he would come out of it. During the slow recovery, he got to where he could squeeze his hand and was able to communicate that way.
He had to learn to talk and walk again, he said. His rodeo career was over for a time.
In the meantime, Erickson continued to work his day job as a welding contractor. It’s a family trade, and he works primarily on piping in fuel, oil and natural gas refineries. Three jobs have been canceled related to the COVID-19 outbreak, so he is currently home.
“We go all over the U.S.,” Erickson said. “We travel everywhere.”
He has a fifth-wheel he takes to jobs, and when he’s not working, he used it to travel to the rodeos, picking up a southern accent along the way. After the injury, he focused on his career.
Following a divorce, he said, “I just kind of went into a dark place.”
Normally social, he didn’t want to see anyone. He didn’t want to go to the gym. He just spent his time at work or at home.
“I was like, ‘That ain’t me at all,'” Erickson said. “I’m trying to bring myself back to who I am.”
So he’s working on a comeback to bull riding, practicing whenever he can.
His cousin let him use his gear, and Erickson took his first ride.
“It was the worst ride I ever had,” he said. The bull went left out of the chute, and Erickson crashed to the ground. His cousin told him he was going to need a lot more practice.
“He said, ‘I’ll be here. I’ll coach you,” Erickson said, and then as long as they’re not working, they’d hit the rodeos as they were able.
“I’m getting back into it,” he said.
He acknowledged he’s been “a little nervous.”
“It’s kind of like when I first started, but I’m getting back to where I was. Everything is starting to slow down again.”
But he doesn’t expect his first couple of shows will be that good, he said.
“I’m going to take it slow, but I have to go back to rodeo.”
That’s a discussion he has had with his girlfriend, Amber Scherr, he said, and she was supportive. Erickson also has two sons, Wyatt, 6, and Wesley, 4.
He said he would like to find a local arena, in which he could practice closer to home.
In rodeo, bull riding is his only event, Erickson said.
“I’m actually super afraid of horses. They have these long powerful legs. If they rear up or go to kicking, I’m out of there.”
At this point, Erickson said, he’s practicing with his cousins in Redmond and looking forward to competing in a rodeo when he can. He’d been getting in two to three practices a week, so when COVID-19 started spreading, “everyone was bummed out.”
When restrictions are lifted, Erickson said, he’ll be ready. He’s moved past the incident that left him injured.
His first time back on a bull, he had a flash of that ride in his head, he said.
“When I got up, I said, ‘Leif, why are you worried? You were never worried before. This is what I love doing.’ Why would I give up what I love doing? I just happened to land in the wrong spot at the wrong time.”
And fear shouldn’t make someone miss out on life, he said, adding that he has faith.
“If God wants me to die, then it’ll happen. You’ve got your one chance to have fun.”