Wednesday, July 30, 2014

God Bless Lane Frost

Lane Frost Memorial Statue
Lane Frost statue at Cheyenne Frontier Days
25 years ago today the sport of rodeo lost one of it's greatest young cowboys.

That cowboy was a world champion bull rider and his name was Lane Frost.


While some of you may not be rodeo enthusiasts, you might be familiar with a movie that was created about his life, 8 Seconds.  The movie starred actor Luke Perry as Lane Frost and Stephan Baldwin as his best friend Tuff Hedeman. 

Have you ever seen the movie?  If not, it's a good one despite some issues.  My biggest beef with the movie is how the father-son relationship is played out for the big screen.  In real life, it was nothing like that.  There are a few other minor discrepancies throughout, but they don't really take too much away from the story.

The impact that Lane Frost left on the sport is still reaching people today!  I can name at least five boys that were born in the late 80's, 90's and 2000's that were named after him.  None of these families actually knew him, but they were so impressed with his character, personality (even if it was just something they glimsed during rodeo broadcasts) and try that they wanted to honor Lane in some way! 

There is a vast amount of memorabilia, books, and websites that want to bring recognition to the kind of cowboy that Lane Frost was, but my favorite is probably a song written by Texas country music singer, Aaron Watson.  He sings about Lane's last day and describes how his memory lives on in rodeo fans.


6 comments:

  1. Oh man... July in Cheyenne is such a good one. I love Aaron Watson.

    Lane Frost seriously brought the heart to rodeo. He's missed.

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  2. 8 seconds...I seriously cry every time I watch that movie.

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  3. I remember watching that movie (because I loved Luke Perry of course) and sobbing.

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  4. I haven't seen 8 Seconds... but now I know what I will be doing this weekend!

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  5. Yes! We definitely could be BFFs! Can't believe our posts are almost identical! Love that you were there for Frontier Days this year. We were there the year that Lane was killed (but not the day) because that's what my brother wanted to do for his 4th birthday, so we made it into our family vacation. I do love 8 Seconds, but I hate the way they made his dad look like a cold, unloving father. Great post!

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  6. Love love love this movies. Definitely one of my favorites. It's in my collections of movies and one of our favorite movies on date night!!

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