Rockin' Robbie Hodges: A rodeo resurrection

By Roy Mitchell
Special to The Post

It was a mishap that yielded Robbie Hodges both agony and opportunity. In September 1999, Robbie rose awkwardly from the disheveled arena dirt, his dislocated shoulder screaming in pain. As he awkwardly hobbled away from the Biloxi, Miss. crowd, he knew that his championship career as a bareback bronco rider was over. Riding in the rodeo was the only profession he had known, and with Robbie and his wife, Lynn, just starting a family, he would have to change his life's direction.

Today, Rockin' Robbie Hodges has found his second career -- an award-winning, lucrative, and satisfying calling. And he didn't have to give up his cowboy hat to do it. Hodges, 40, still frequents the rodeo ring -- not as a rider, but as a clown. And he's not just any rodeo clown. Since that fateful fall in 1999 Robbie has won the IPRA Clown of the Year Award three times and has been nominated for the PRCA Clown of the Year Award twice. His schedule for this spring alone will take his Dodge truck and his face paint from New Mexico to Virginia, from Green Bay to Beaumont, and to various venues across the fruited plain just about every weekend in-between. He even clowned for a rodeo televised by ESPN in September 2007. When he's not on the road, Hodges calls Cave Spring, Ga. his home.

Officially, Robbie Hodges is a barrel man. Unlike a rider or roper, a barrel man has two important responsibilities -- the most important of which is to protect the cowboy. Once the bull rider is thrown or dismounts, Robbie positions his barrel (with him inside it) close to the bull, giving the hostile bovine a padded target. “Then when he rolls me around [in the barrel], he's not hitting the rider.”

The most visible half of Rockin' Robbie's ostentatious occupation is that of crowd entertainer. In between the rodeo rides and during timed events, Robbie, using a microphone headset, cracks jokes, quips witticisms and generally jests with the announcer and the crowd. Twice a show, Robbie provides outlandish comedic skits, during which he may simulate a sumo wrestler or perform Elvis Parsley's Cooking Show. He more recently has donned dancing disco puppets, to the utter delight of his fans.

In fact, Robbie's skit preparation has proven quite the family affair: Lynn came up with the Elvis Parsley idea; Hodges' son Reed assisted with the formation of the sumo skit; and daughter Carli painted the white splotches to create Robbie's distinct Holstein cow-looking hats.

While Robbie's family helps create his act, the family influence keeps his rodeo commentary as wholesome as Mayberry and mother's milk.

Even before the mishap that tore him away from his riding career, 16 years of toilsome travel and bronco bruises had softened the rock-hard Georgia cowboy. “I was riding better than I ever was, but I was tired of getting beat up. I was winning and wanted to quit. I had children by then… The injury was just a good signal to stop.”

Knowing his decision was the right one, Robbie acted to ensure he wouldn't foolishly reverse his resolution. “I kind of had a moonlight madness sale that night at the arena behind the bucking chutes. I sold my rigging, my girth, one glove, my rosin bag, enough [of my equipment] to keep me from coming back.” Robbie's gear produced a paltry $168 from what little remained of his $150,000 career. He took the money to a Biloxi casino and wasted it away at the craps table.

Robbie's witty personality and rodeo connections quickly paved the way for his clowning career. During his riding days, Robbie cleverly masked his fear by cutting up, telling jokes, and poking fun. Surmising he might fit the part, Robbie approached a friend, Bubba Oubre, who was a rodeo stock contractor about the possibility of clowning. “He gave me a chance. I wanted just something to keep me in the business, [to do] maybe five rodeos that year, and I did about 20. I just had a little something different, and it took.”

In 2007 Robbie Hodges performed at 58 PRCA rodeos, the most prestigious of all the rodeo circuits. He promotes himself with his own web site at www.rockinrobbiehodges.com.

Rockin' Robbie is back on the top rodeo rung and is having the time of his life. “I'm off for five days at a time, and then I go rodeo on the weekends and get $100,000 a year. I get paid to have a good time. That is the coolest thing about the whole deal.”