ProRodeo Sports News - October 5, 2018

know at Cowtown call it, the crow’s nest. “He fought through it like no other and was determined to get back here this summer,” Betsy said. “That was his goal. Truthfully, we didn’t think he was going to. It was pretty rough. “The fact he came back and worked 19 weeks, 19 performances, it’s amazing.” Cleveland, of Ballston Spa, N.Y., made a career as a car auctioneer. He was a rodeo announcer on the side. He drove hundreds of miles from one auction to another, and sandwiched trips to rodeos – especially those in the First Frontier Circuit – in between. His drive from Ballston Spa to Cowtown is six hours (but he can make it in well under five if there aren’t any blockades). “I’ve covered just about every mile of our circuit at one time or another,” said Cleveland, who first stepped behind a rodeo microphone in 1968 as a fill-in. He may have been down, but he’s definitely not out. “That (cancer) had a lot to do with it,” he said about stepping away. “I’m not giving up. We’ve got everything, right now, under control and trying to keep it that way. We’re not going to give up, I’m going to ride this horse until it don’t go any farther. That’s for darn sure.” Before the final performance inWoodstown Pilesgrove, Sept. 29, the Cowtown Rodeo honored Cleveland. His entire family attended, along with 4,300 of his closest friends for the evening – the rodeo’s biggest crowd since 2014. The rodeo committee presented him with an award, the cowboy competitors all tipped their hats his way. “Grant made a big speech about me,” Cleveland said, “then, I took the mic and I told the rodeo fans, ‘It doesn’t matter if we’re here in Cowtown, N.J., or Las Vegas, Nev., without the great rodeo fans we don’t have a rodeo.’ Boy, it brought the house down.” Then the 75-year-old (he’ll be 76 Oct. 24) left the arena and made one final climb up the crow’s nest with Betsy. “When we got to the top of the crow’s nest, he STILL FIGHTING and I stood there for a moment,” Betsy said. “We had Ty Miller co-announcing. We hugged and cried and said, ‘OK, cut it, we have to go back to work.’ “That’s what he does. He just went in and announced the rodeo, it was beautiful. He never missed a beat.” The advice McSpadden gave to Cleveland all those years ago turned out to be true. The ProRodeo Hall of Famer knew what he was saying when he told Cleveland not to take a back seat to anyone. Betsy Harris will happily vouch to that. “Dusty’s of the old-school announcers,” she said. “Like Hadley Barrett, Dusty just has that rhythm and that class about him. He genuinely loves the sport.” Next year, when competitors step into the arena at the Cowtown Rodeo, it will be under the sound of a different voice. But the echo of Cleveland’s will not soon be forgotten. “When he goes to a restaurant for supper everyone here knows him because he’s been coming here for so long,” Betsy Harris said. “‘There’s the voice of Cowtown,’ that’s literally how they know him. He’ll be greatly missed, no doubt about that.”

“That (cancer) had a lot to do with (stepping away). I’m not giving up. We’ve got everything, right now, under control and trying to keep it that way. We’re not going to give up, I’m going to ride this horse until it don’t go any farther. That’s for darn sure.” -– DUSTY CLEVELAND

Dusty Cleveland shown circa 1984, above left, with Betsy Harris and Grant Harris and with the couple again, below, in 2018. Photos courtesy Betsy Harris

ProRodeo Sports News 10/5/2018

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