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PAGE LABEL
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
WEDNESDAY
September 22, 2021
Monument/Dayville’s Senior
Zachary Ferguson
Monument/Dayville’s
quarterback Jordan Hull,
a senior
Dayville/
Monument
falls to
Joseph 20-6
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
MONUMENT — Joseph
proved to be too much for Day-
ville/Monument to handle as
the Eagles defeated the Tigers
20-6 on Friday, Sept. 17.
Zachary Ferguson, a senior,
told the Eagle that there was
good sportsmanship all around
in the football game.
“They (Joseph) were cour-
teous, and it was not like they
were targeting anyone. They
were just playing the game,
just like us,” he said. “They
were just having fun.”
Dayville/Monument coach
Tim Auty said in the team’s
next game against Echo, he
wants the Tigers to start the
way they fi nish.
“We fi nished much stron-
ger than we started,” Jordan
Hull,
Dayville/Monument
quarterback, said.
Dayville/Monument
is
0-3 on the season so far, hav-
ing lost their Sept. 10 game to
Huntington 20-6 and falling to
Prairie City 54-0 in their fi rst
game on Sept. 4.
Next up:
Dayville/Monument will
host Echo on Friday, Sept.
24, at 1 p.m. at Dayville High
School.
Dayville/Monument football
coach Chris Carlin
SPORTS
SCHEDULE
THURSDAY, SEPT. 23
Grant Union football vs.
Irrigon, 7 p.m.
FRIDAY, SEPT. 24
Prairie City football vs. Jo-
seph, 7 p.m.
Prairie City volleyball vs.
Joseph, 5 p.m.
Grant Union cross country @
Lebanon, champions invita-
tional, 3 p.m.
SATURDAY, SEPT. 25
Prairie City volleyball @
Elgin, 1 p.m.
Grant Union volleyball @
Stanfi eld/Weston-McEwen,
1:30 p.m.
Kellie Ridenour/Contributed Photo
Retired rodeo clown Gerald “Pinky” Christopher poses in full clown attire with a group of children in 1973 at the Deschutes County Fair Rodeo in Redmond.
A lifetime of making the crowds laugh
By NICK ROSENBERGER
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Gerald “Pinky”
Christopher has spent his life making
others laugh. With fritzy eyebrows
and wire-rimmed glasses peeking out
from under his cowboy hat and a mis-
chievous grin crowned by a white
horseshoe mustache, Christopher is
the defi nition of old school cowboy.
From his red kerchief to his cow-
boy boots, the soon-to-be 87-year-
old’s life as a rodeo clown is etched
into him. His youthful energy goes
against a lifetime spent helping build
the foundations of Oregon rodeo.
Born in Kansas in 1934, Christo-
pher wasn’t even a year old when he
and his mom, dad, two brothers, and
uncle piled into a Model-A truck and
moved across the country to Oregon,
where they settled in the Willamette
Valley. Outside of Eugene, his father
owned a ranch that ran up against the
nearby logging camps during World
War II, but sold it and moved to Red-
mond after the war ended.
“On Friday I was going to high
school in Elmira, Oregon, and Mon-
day I was going to Redmond, Ore-
gon,” Christopher said, “and so I fi n-
ished high school in Redmond.”
It was as a senior in high school
when Christopher truly began a life-
time in rodeo. When visiting Tygh
Valley for a rodeo, he drew War Paint
— the famous saddle bronc who won
the Professional Rodeo Cowboys
Association Bucking Horse of the
Year Award in 1956, 1957 and 1958
and is preserved at the Pendleton
Round-Up Hall of Fame.
“I rode him to the whistle, and
then I went sky and up in the air and
40 feet forwards,” Christopher said.
“And I think I won all of $25.”
Christopher said he did bareback
and saddle bronc and a few bulls
before deciding to become a clown
“to be in front of them instead of on
top of them.”
It was the early 1950s when Chris-
topher started his clowning career in
the small town of Yoncalla in Doug-
las County. When the rodeo had no
bulls, he asked the organizer if he
needed any help with entertainment
Kellie Ridenour/Contributed Photo
Retired rodeo clown Gerald “Pinky” Christopher, 87, poses with tribal members
on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021, at the Pendleton Round-Up.
Kellie Ridenour/Contributed Photo
Retired rodeo clown Gerald “Pinky” Christopher poses with War Paint, a re-
nowned bronc he rode in the early 1950s, at the Pendleton Round-Up on Sept.
15, 2016.
and in return got his entrance fees
covered.
There was one lady, he said, who
owned about two-thirds of the busi-
nesses in Yoncalla and had brought
her grandson to the rodeo who was
crying and whining and bawling.
“I started going by and I’d get up
on a fencepost and sit there and he’d
shoot me with his cap gun and I’d fall
off and stuff ,” Christopher said, “and
pretty soon, before the second day
was over with, why he was a-laugh-
ing and having a good time and his
grandmother was enjoying the show.”
Christopher would spend the next
30 some odd years traveling around
Oregon to rodeos, working as a bull-
fi ghter and rodeo clown, ingrain-
ing himself into Oregon rodeo life. It
made him happy to help others have
a good time, forget their troubles and
enjoy the show, he said.
“If you just make them laugh for
10 minutes and forget their troubles,”
he said, “why it was well worth it.”
Christopher said it was diff erent
then versus nowadays, where rodeo
clowns, bullfi ghters and entertain-
ment are separate. Back then, “you
were the rodeo clown, you were the
bullfi ghter and you were part of the
entertainment, too.”
“He was a prankster, oh my god I
could tell you a million stories,” said
Robert Cosner, a retired member of
the Deschutes County Sheriff ’s Offi ce
who has known Christopher for more
than 40 years.
One of these included building
a washtub on a saddle and adding a
sack of fl our to the bottom. They’d
sprinkle fl our on Christopher, and
he’d hop in the tub on top of a buck-
ing horse with his legs poking out.
He’d get bucked out and fl our would
go everywhere, Cosner said. He
strapped heavy thick sponges to his
back and the back of his legs to help
avoid getting too banged up.
“Sometimes you get the wrong
way, you know, eating a little
dirt,” Christopher said, “but usu-
ally you tried to land on your
feet.”
Christopher did anything he could
think of to get people hooting and
hollering and enjoying the show.
“Whatever you can come up with
to keep the people entertained,” he
said.
Even now, at 87 years old, Chris-
topher never misses a rodeo, accord-
ing to his daughter, Kellie Ridenour.
He still loves making others laugh.
“I enjoyed it, the people enjoyed
it,” he said. “If they were happy, I was
happy.”
SPORTS ROUNDUP
Panthers pick up second win
of the season
PRAIRIE CITY — The Panthers
improved their record to 2-1 in
league play with a 36-18 win over
South Wasco.
Nick Thomspon, Panthers head
football coach, said he had some
players that showed up to play
Friday.
He told the Eagle Monday that
the team played really “physi-
cal,” which, he said, was what the
squad was lacking in their loss to
Wheeler on Sept. 10.
He said the team had over
a dozen missed tackles against
Wheeler the week before com-
pared to two in their game against
South Wasco.
Thompson said the team
watched the game on fi lm and
worked on what they needed to
in practice, and the scoreboard
refl ected that hard work.
He said another signifi cant
improvement this week was the
off ensive line putting down blocks
and staying with them.
On defense, Wes Voigt had eight
and a half tackles, including a sack
and two tackles for a loss of yards.
Thompson said he credits a half to
a player if they share in a tackle.
Additionally, he said Eli Wright
had six and a half tackles, one
sack, and two tackles for a loss;
he said one was a forced fumble
that Brock Haak recovered. Trey
Brown had fi ve tackles and one
sack as well.
Off ensively, Thompson said
Voigt was three for 10 on passing
for 65 yards and one touchdown.
He told the Eagle John Titus scored
one touchdown and had 45 yards.
Wright, he said, had two recep-
tions for 20 yards. Tucker Wright
had three carries for fi ve yards and
Voigt had a carry for fi ve yards as
well.
Cole Teel carried the ball 21
times for a total of 367 yards and
scored four touchdowns.
“(Teel) is starting to prove that
he needs to be in the conversation
in this league,” Thompson said.
“He really balled out this week.”
Grant Union girls volleyball
team improves to
a 9-5 record
HEPPNER/BAKER CITY —
After a 3-0 win over Heppner on
Thursday, Sept. 16, the Lady Pros
won three out of six games at the
East-West Classic Volleyball Tour-
nament in Powder Valley on Sept.
18-19.
The Eagle was unable to reach
Shanna Northway, Grant Union’s
volleyball coach.
Prairie City volleyball wins
two in a row
PRAIRIE CITY/ELGIN — The
Lady Panthers won back-to-back
games on Friday and Saturday, Sept.
17 and 18. On Friday, the girls team
blanked the Bees 3-0 and on Sat-
urday overpowered Elgin 3-1. The
Eagle was unable to get in touch
with Jordan Bass, Prairie City’s vol-
leyball coach.
Grant Union drops season
opener to Lost River 51-26
LOST RIVER — Grant Union
lost its fi rst football game of the sea-
son to Lost River 51-26. The Eagle
was unable to reach Grant Union
coach Jason Miller for comment.