As a high school senior, Abbie Marvel wanted to go to a college where she could be on a rodeo team and where she could major in fashion design.

“Texas Tech University was the only school I could find,” said Marvel, a breakaway roper and goat-tying specialist from Paradise Valley, Nev., on the Texas Tech women’s rodeo team.

Marvel won’t be in a rodeo arena earning jackpot money this summer. She is going to Italy on a fashion internship.

Marvel represents a unique breed of rodeo performers — ones who ride for their college education.

Their futures may be as fashion designers, bankers, veterinarians or nurses during the work week and rodeo performers on the weekends.

Students first, rodeo second

Chris Guay, a circuit champion bareback rider on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, in the 1980s and early 1990s, became head coach for the Texas Tech University rodeo program in 1997. He said today’s college rodeo performer is more organized.

“When they come to Texas Tech, they have to treat their school, their studies and the rodeo practice and competition as a business,” said Guay, whose team works out of the Texas Tech Equestrian Center in the Frenship Community.

“Texas Tech will weed out those who aren’t from the best of both worlds who don’t keep schedules and do what they are supposed to do,” he said.

Craig Leonard, a calf roper from Sonora, said he was thinking about being a veterinarian, but could change to agricultural business. Someday he’d like to return to Sonora and run the family business, a sheep operation.

So a degree in business would definitely help Leonard keep his family’s books.

“It’s great for someone who has high ideals and wants to achieve goals. (But) they have to take care of business,” said Guay about earning a degree.

The college rodeo cowboy’s day begins before sunrise and can end around midnight, said Guay. Cowboys take care of their horses as well as go to school and practice.

Professional rodeo is different than when Guay was on the circuit. The payoffs for rodeos, he said, have not kept pace with inflation.

“Compared to what the economy was then, the hotel and gas prices have gone up. Now they are trying to get sponsors … before they go into rodeo,” he said.

Some of Guay’s rodeo winners have not only earned their degrees, but went on to success on the rodeo circuit.

Shandon Stalls of McLean, a steer roper, earned a degree in agriculture education and uses it as a farmer and rancher.

Lindsay Sears, the No. 2 barrel racer in the world last year, graduated from Texas Tech with a degree in agricultural applied economics.

Ryan Gray, who has earned more than $430, 000 since joining the pro rodeo circuit in 2002, has a degree in agricultural leadership.

Calf roper Vin Fisher, Jr., recently joined the circuit, and has a degree in business management.

Guay said earning a degree simply gives rodeo performers a leg up if they aren’t able to compete.

“Not only can you be a success in the rodeo arena, but you can be a success in life,” said Guay. “You can get your degree and set yourself up for a good career.”

Near the end of Guay’s career, he blended rodeo and his career. He taught at Wharton County Junior College.

He also teaches today in the Department of Animal and Food Sciences at Texas Tech.

“(A degree) gives them something to fall back on,” he said

Degrees’ value grows over years

R.G. de Stolfe, a historian at Texas Tech’s Ranching Heritage Center, said society values a college degree today differently than it did 20 years ago.

How the degree is thought of has trickled down to the rodeo performer’s decision of whether to go to college.

“Years ago, all you needed was a high school degree,” he said. “Now, people think of a bachelor’s degree the same way they thought of a high school degree years ago.”

Guay remembered Andy Thomas, a bull rider from New Mexico in the Texas Tech program.

Thomas works today as an architect now in the Lubbock area, said Guay.

“He was the only one in his family to complete his degree,” said Guay.