The Real McCoy

Growing up in southwestern Iowa, Denny McCoy has always been a cowboy. He’s a second generation rough stock rider, having learned the ropes from his father, Joe, and when offered a rodeo scholarship at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, he jumped at the chance.

“When I graduated high school, I got the scholarship to OSU, and then I never left. I’ve been here ever since,” Denny said. While at college, McCoy continued to focus on rough stock events. “I rode bareback horses and bulls, but in college I did a little saddle bronc because they wanted me to and that was part of the deal.”

It was there, while at a study group with friends, he met Janet Tucker, from the southeast Oklahoma town of Finley. Janet herself was a rancher’s daughter, so the pair was well-matched. “My roommate was studying with these guys, because we lived in the dorms, and she wanted me to go with her one afternoon to study, and Denny is one of them she had gone to study with,” Janet recalled.

Denny added, “To be honest with you, I thank the Lord every day for her, because in my opinion she’s the greatest person who’s ever walked the face of this earth.”

After getting married in 1967, the McCoys moved from Stillwater to Iowa. They eventually relocated to Dumas, Texas, where Denny worked as a cattle buyer. “When we moved to Dumas, I was buying fat cattle for American Beef, and that’s when they were first building the feedlots in the Panhandle. We lived in Dumas for three years,” he said.

Once the two were married, Janet began rodeoing alongside Denny, competing in barrel racing. She won quite a bit, including an American Paint Horse Amateur World Championship.

Eventually, they moved to Madill, Okla., where they lived for several years, before finally moving to a home east of Tupelo, where they still live. “We bought a place in Madill and lived there about 13 years, and when we sold it we bought this house, and have been here ever since. I think we moved here in 1991,” he said of the home that sits off old highway 3 west of Tupelo.

For Denny, there was never any question about living in Oklahoma. “I’ve always loved Oklahoma,” he said.

The Life of a Rodeo Man

Denny and Janet raised five children: Justen, Nikki, JoRay, Jet, and Cord. “All the kids rodeoed, and it has never stopped. When Janet and I first got married I rodeoed, and when I kind of quit I had kids old enough to rodeo. When they all went off on their own I started hauling bulls, so I’ve been going my whole life,” he said.

All four boys were accomplished cowboys who competed in rough stock events, while Nikki was a barrel racer. Still, it was the youngest boys, Cord and Jet, who are the most well-known. Both boys were five time International Professional Rodeo Association World Champions, while Cord also made the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and the Professional Bull Riders Finals several times. “They have all been very successful at rodeo. Jet and Cord probably took it to the next level because they kept doing it, but all the kids were very successful,” Denny reminisced. JoRay also made the International Finals Rodeo in 1994, while Nikki won several world and national titles in the APHA.

It was during one of Cord and Jet’s banner years in the IPRA that publishing giant Sports Illustrated came for a visit. The writer, Jeff Pearlman, stayed for a two-week stint in late 1998. “You could tell he was out of his element. He was from New York, so he rented a car to come down here. He thought we were having a plague because of seeing dead animals on the side of the road,” Janet recalled with a smile.

Soon, more than rodeo fans got to know the two younger brothers. They competed on the CBS television reality competition the Amazing Race Season 16 in 2009. They returned for Season 18: Unfinished Business, and Season 24: All Stars. Although the pair was competitive each year, and finished second once, they never claimed the million dollar prize.

When asked what advice to give parents whose children want to rodeo, his response was simple. “Just take them,” he said.

The Beginning of the Bull Business

It in the mid-1990s that Denny began to get involved with raising bucking bulls. “Justen was working as a pickup man for Larry Kephart,” Denny said, referencing the well-known Oklahoma stock contractor. “He got interested in the bucking bull deal, and Larry got to trading him heifers in exchange for picking up.” He added, “We started breeding them before it was popular to do like it is now.”

The decision to raise bucking bulls instead of beef bulls was an easy one for Denny. Not only was he connected to the rodeo life he loved, the bulls also could bring in more money. “We started because they were worth more. There had been a couple registries that had tried but never took off, but when the American Bucking Bull, Inc, started, I registered about 100 cows,” he said. The ABBI owns and manages the largest bucking cattle registry in the world which contains the DNA records of 145,000 animals. The ABBI sanctions competitions around the country that awards big cash prizes, with a World Finals event held in Las Vegas.

Raising bucking bulls takes a lot of work. Denny typically has 100 head on his ranch, and is constantly evaluating and whittling down to the best ones. “It takes up some time, but you start with 50 to 70 yearlings, and you’re just looking for the good ones, so by the time they’re three or four you only have the best,” he said.

The McCoys have raised some great and well-known bulls over the years, one of the most memorable named Bells Blue. “Bells Blue was probably the most famous one I ever had, and he was also a producer. Last year I took three bulls to the finals in Las Vegas, and all three were out of daughters of his,” he said. Born in 2001, Bells Blue was a PBR Short-Go bull. While Bells Blue has long since passed and hangs as a mount in the McCoys’ living room, his legacy lives on. “We still have semen from him, so we have calves every year.”

Other well-known McCoy Ranch sire bulls include Coyote Ugly and Dixie Chicken. “We’ve changed our program considerably, though,” Denny explained. “Used to we would keep older bulls that we’d haul to the PBR events, but there weren’t as many competitions then. Now, when we’re done competing with them their four-year-old year we typically sell them. First of all because we don’t have the time, and second because the bull competitions are where the money is.”

That’s because at competitions you get paid prize money, while at rodeos or PBR events you’re just paid a fee per out. “For example, my granddaughter Katie (Perschbacher) took a bull for me this weekend to Bordertown (Bordertown Casino and Arena) in Wyandotte. The entry fees were $300 and he won $4,600, so he made $4,300, but people hauling to other events might only get $500 an out,” he explained. “These days there are bucking bull competitions all over. It’s not a question of if you’re going, but where you’re going.”

He went on to explain that these competitions are held all over the country, but “The heart of the deal would probably be southern Oklahoma and north Texas. There are probably more here than anywhere else.”

Katie has been helping Denny with the bull operation for the last year. “She’s a natural. You have to have a feel for flanking them, and you have to have that tough. Katie very much has it. She’s finishing up college and had to have an apprenticeship, so she’s been working with me,” he said.

“It’s seriously been the coolest thing getting to watch the bulls grow and progress every weekend. I’m so thankful Papa Denny lets me be a part of it. It’s just him and me every weekend,” Katie said.

While Denny had a great year in 2018, which one can see by the array of buckles on his living room’s entertainment center, 2019 is already shaping up to be another good one with the win at Bordertown.

Now that all five of the McCoy children are grown up, the family has expanded. Denny and Janet have fourteen grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. “Cord raises bucking bulls, Jet is a rancher and rides and starts a lot of reining horse colts. Justen is a fireman and raises and trains percherons to drive under harness, and Nikki is a photographer and ranches with her husband. They all live close,” McCoy said. “JoRay is the only one who lives further away. He’s in Edmond and is an accountant for the state of Oklahoma and raises and shows goats.”

Denny and Janet show no signs of slowing down. Along with the bucking bull business, they raise American Quarter Horse Association registered ranch horses, descendents of the legendary stallion Joe Hancock. Janet, who’s always been handy with a camera, turned her hobby into a business in the mid-1980s when the cattle market crashed. An award-winning photographer, she continues to stay busy with her business in Ada, Okla.

This article was originally published in the February 2019 issue of Oklahoma Farm & Ranch.