Rodeo returns to town after long break

By: SAM STEINBERG

Posted: 4/17/08

Break out the blue jeans, belt buckles and boots - the Great Southland Stampede Rodeo is returning to Athens after spending the past four years outside of Athens-Clarke County.

The student-run rodeo will take place tonight through Saturday at the Livestock Teaching Arena located at the corner of South Milledge Avenue and Whitehall Drive. The professional-style rodeo is a production of the Block and Bridal club.

The students organize almost every aspect of the event, including getting sponsors, food, bleachers, rodeo clowns and more. It is the only student-run rodeo in the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association, and the student organizers manage a budget of over $60,000.

GREAT SOUTHERN STAMPEDE RODEO

When: Tonight through Saturday
Gates open at 6 p.m.
Performances at 8 p.m.
Where: Livestock Teaching Arena (South Milledge and Whitehall Drive)
Cost: $10/student
More info: http://www.uga.edu/bandb/tickets.html

This year, the rodeo has special significance since it will take place close to campus inside the borders of ACC. The Great Southern Stampede Rodeo started in 1974 and was held in Stegeman Coliseum from its inaugural year until 2003. In 2004, the rodeo was moved to Heritage Park in Farmington, which is more than 30 miles from downtown Athens. For University students, many of whom are unfamiliar with the side roads of Nor-theast Georgia, the drive out to Heritage Park was not an appetizing venture.

"We were so far away it was physically difficult for people [to] make [it] out there," said Jake Willcox, this year's rodeo chairman for the Block and Bridal club.

"We have such an adva-ntage being here. We are so much closer to campus - there are 35,000 students just down the street that can buy tickets," Willcox said. "Being back on campus is huge for us. We've gotten more support from our University community than we have ever had."

To Willcox, the rodeo should be a part of any discussion on Athens' heritage.

"There is a ton of heritage in this town," Willcox said in his classic Southern accent. "You come out to this rodeo and it is a piece of Athens' heritage that is as old as anything."