Sixty years after his uncle Roy’s Calgary Stampede victory, Riley Duvall adds his own championship chapter to Checotah’s steer wrestling legacy
by Leigh Ann Matthews
Photos by Covy Moore, Calgary Stampede
In July, a young cowboy from Checotah, Oklahoma, entered the steer wrestling competition at the famed Calgary Stampede in Alberta, Canada, and walked away with the championship.
Riley Duvall’s 3.9-second run in the Showdown round earned him $50,000, in addition to the $12,500 he won for qualifying for the championship round. Sixty years before Riley’s victory, his uncle, Roy Duvall, won the steer wrestling title at the first Calgary Stampede to include the event. In a social media interview following his win, Riley mentioned his uncle’s championship 60 years earlier and said he knew Roy was watching from home.
Riley added, “I’m just very happy, very proud to be here and very proud of my family.”
The Duvall family has been well known in the rodeo arena for decades and has helped put the small northeastern Oklahoma town of Checotah on the rodeo map. Known as the “Steer Wrestling Capital of the World,” Checotah has produced world champion steer wrestlers since the 1950s, when Benny and Willard Combs both won steer wrestling championships, followed by Billy Hale in the 1970s. Roy Duvall qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 24 times and won three PRCA world championships in 1967, 1969 and 1972.
Roy was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1978 and the PRCA Hall of Fame in 1979. Roy’s late brother, Bill Duvall, was his number one hazer. Bill, his two sons, Spud and Sam Duvall, and cousin Tom Duvall have all qualified for the finals. As the fifth Duvall to compete in PRCA steer wrestling, he is now joined by Tom’s son, Nathan, who has been competing at the college level and is now in his second year competing in the PRCA.
Riley’s win in Calgary moved him from 23rd place to fourth in the 2026 standings and increased the probability for his fifth trip to the National Finals Rodeo in December.
“Calgary changed my year instantly with the boost in the standings, and I couldn’t be prouder to have my name on the same list as my Uncle Roy’s,” he said.
He added that the hazing work by Kyle Erwin and the great horse, Dr. Pepper, made the win possible and thanked Josh Harvey and his team at Outlaw Equine Hospital and Rehab Center for getting the horse ready for competition.
Riley has been competing in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association since 2010 and has qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2021. He competed in baseball, football and basketball in school before focusing on rodeo, winning the National High School Rodeo Association steer wrestling championships in 2008 and 2009. He was also a three-time Oklahoma State Champion. Riley lives near Checotah with his wife, Megan, and their two children, Cruze, 5, and Chaney, 10.
SPOTLIGHT
Also in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association
Oklahomans Jeff Medders and Mary Burger were recently inducted into the PRCA Hall of Fame. Medders, of Tulsa, has been a voice of the PRCA for more than three decades and, according to the PRCA, “is now one of the premier television hosts in Western sports who is known for his versatility, authenticity and deep connection to the horse and the Western way of life.”
Mary Burger joined the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association in 1985 when she moved from Indiana to Oklahoma. She won the Barrel Racing World Championship in 2006 at the age of 58. She qualified for the NFR two more times before winning the title again in 2016 at the age of 68 years and 2 months, becoming the oldest world champion, male or female.
