Denny Gentry, 67, is team roping’s Godfather. And with the turn of calendar year come Jan. 1, 2020, Gentry will step away from the leadership role he’s held in this sport for the last time as the National Team Roping’s Ty Yost takes his place. The founder of the USTRC and the World Series of Team Roping and the director of roping operations for Active Interest Media, Gentry is a workaholic with a knack for brutal honesty and a business sense second to none. He leaves in place an infrastructure that will continue to grow the sport, thanks to the work of the entire Gentry family and the connections they’ve made. Before I let him off the hook, though, I asked for one last interview (as my boss, that is) to look back on his career and look forward on his future.
Q: Thirty years. Was this a vision from the start, or a happy accident that snowballed and became a larger-than-life phenomenon?
A: All of the above: a dream, multiple circumstances, that just snowballed.
Q: I’ve heard from mutual friends of ours about the boating accident that almost took your life, but I don’t feel like a lot of ropers understand how that affected who you are and the sport of team roping. Do you care to tell ropers about it?
A: When I was 25 years old, I had an accident that was a game changer for me, and it eventually impacted the roping business. The severity of the wreck had a half-dozen doctors talking about amputation of my arms but, by the grace of God, I got to keep them with a permanent disability at both elbows. Eventually, I would want to rope again, but I had to break down and admit that I was handicapped. The way I accepted that was by realizing that people are all handicapped in some way, all different; they come in every shape, size and situation. Very few have the ability or life situation to make roping, golfing or any pastime the central focal point of their life. We all want to be the best we can be, or do the best we can do, given our personal situation at that place and time in our lives. I realized that everyone’s “best” can be completely different, and that’s okay. We don’t have to apologize for it.
Q: Your wife, Connie, remains influential in the World Series and USTRC going forward. How will that work?
A: The company figured out early on that she was the essential element, and when Ty decided to accept the position, he asked her if she would stay and help him with the transition. I don’t think any of us know how long this transition will be. So I think team roping will still remain the primary area of discussion at the house until she is done.
Q: There’s always talk about how roping has changed over the three decades of your career and beyond. But how have the ropers themselves changed, as well as their attitudes toward the sport—particularly with the advent of social media?
A: They won’t drive as far because they have so many options. I think we might have corrupted them a little and given them expectations that are way too high. The first years of USTRC, ropers were actually giddy over roping in ropings the size of our current-day qualifiers. USTRC’s Cinch National Finals of Team Roping just completed in Oklahoma City, and I actually heard ropers complaining about really good ropings, not because anything was wrong, but they just didn’t compare to the old days. I see people comparing roping payoff with drastically different entry fees. Every roping needs to be judged and enjoyed for what it is. I heard of a few lady ropers who walked away from the Ladies’ roping because it had less than 50 teams, $2,000 added to the nose, tons of prizes, paying $9,000 to win, saying “Naw, ain’t worth entering.”
Last March, we awarded $500,000 at AT&T Stadium in one division of the American Cowboy. That was done on a $200 entry fee and it didn’t even raise a buzz in the industry. It’s really our fault for always hyping everything to be bigger and better. The million-dollar ropings have really changed expectations. I don’t know how the associations are going to live up to their own success.
The social media thing is another matter. Cowboys as a rule hate change, and change has been what we have always been about. So, every time something changes, it will generate lots of chatter. I see these posts on social media about how the WSTR barrier or the price of entry fees or this or that “ruined” team roping. Nine times out of 10, these proclamations are made by people who weren’t even born when we started and don’t have a clue what team roping used to look like before team roping became the hot ticket. Team roper jokes were as common as lawyer jokes, and that’s not true anymore. We are a $70-million to $100-million industry that multiplies five to 10 times into a support economy. We didn’t ruin anything. Social media can create great problems because it instantly perpetuates, legitimizes and spreads perceptions to people that don’t know any better...
I have nothing but admiration for this guy. We met when he was with the NM Cattle Growers and I was a policy analyst at NMDA. He had an idea of how to better the sport of team roping and the guts to follow through on what he believed, which eventually evolved into the USTRC. First was the idea, then came the courage, and Gentry had both. Anyone whose picked up a nylon rope in the last 30 years has benefited greatly from his and Connie's efforts. I just wish I could load my horse and go rope with him right now. We might have a story or two to tell.
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