Born: December 5, 1870
Place of Birth: Jenks Branch, Texas, U.S.
Died: April 2, 1932
Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius
Willie M. Pickett was an American cowboy, rodeo performer, and actor. In 1989, Pickett was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Pickett was born in the Jenks Branch community of Williamson County, Texas, in 1870. (Jenks Branch, also known as the Miller Community, is in western Williamson County, five miles southeast of Liberty Hill, and near the Travis County line.) He was the second of 13 children born to Thomas Jefferson Pickett, a former enslaved man, and Mary "Janie" Gilbert. Pickett had four brothers and eight sisters. The family's ancestry was African-American and Cherokee. By 1888, the family had moved to Taylor, Texas.
In 1890, Pickett married Maggie Turner, the formerly enslaved daughter of a white southern plantation owner. The couple had nine children.
Pickett left school in the fifth grade to become a ranch hand; he soon began to ride horses and watch the Texas Longhorn steers of his native Texas.
He invented the technique of bulldogging, the skill of grabbing cattle by the horns and wrestling them to the ground. It was known among cattlemen that a stray steer could be caught with the help of a trained bulldog. Bill Pickett had seen this happen on many occasions. He also thought that if a bulldog could do this feat, so could he. Pickett practiced his stunt by riding hard, springing from his horse, and wrestling the steer to the ground. Pickett's method for bulldogging was biting a cow on the lip and falling backward. He also helped cowboys with bulldogging. This method eventually lost popularity as the sport became steer wrestling practiced in rodeos.
Pickett soon became known for his tricks and stunts at local country fairs. He established The Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders Association with his four brothers. The name Bill Pickett soon became synonymous with successful rodeos. He did his bulldogging act, traveling about in Texas, Arizona, Wyoming, and Oklahoma.
In 1905, Pickett joined the 101 Ranch Wild West Show that featured the likes of Buffalo Bill, Will Rogers, Tom Mix, Bee Ho Gray, and Zach and Lucille Mulhall; he performed under the name "The Dusky Demon." Pickett was soon a popular performer who toured around the world and appeared in early motion pictures, such as a movie created by Richard E. Norman. Pickett's ethnicity resulted in his inability to appear at many rodeos, so he often was forced to claim that he was of Comanche heritage to perform. In 1921, he appeared in The Bull-Dogger and The Crimson Skull films.
In 1932, after having retired from Wild West shows, a Bronco kicked Bill Pickett in the head. After a multi-day coma, he died on April 2, 1932; he was buried on the 101 Ranch. He is buried near a 15-foot stone monument to the friendship of Ponca Tribal Chief White Eagle and the Miller Brothers on Monument Hill, also known as the White Eagle Monument to the locals, less than a quarter of a mile to the northeast of Marland, Oklahoma.
In 1971, Pickett was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. In 1989, Pickett was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
Concert promoter Lu Vason founded the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo in 1984. The touring rodeo celebrates Black cowboys.
In 1987, the North Fort Worth Historical Society presented a statue of Pickett performing his signature "bulldogging" maneuver, made by artist Lisa Perry to Fort Worth, Texas. The figure is installed in the Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District.
The United States Postal Service chose to include Bill Pickett in the Legends of the West commemorative sheet unveiled in December 1993. One month later, the Pickett family informed the Postal Service that the likeness was incorrect. Its source material was a misidentified photograph of Bill Pickett's brother and fellow cowboy star, Ben Pickett. In October 1994, the USPS released corrected stamps based on the poster for The Bull-Dogger.
In March 2015, the Taylor City Council announced that a road leading to the rodeo arena would be renamed to honor Bill Pickett.
On June 2, 2017, a new statue of Bill Pickett was unveiled in his hometown of Taylor, Texas. It is prominently displayed at the intersection of 2nd and Main Streets downtown.
On August 6, 2018, Bill Pickett was inducted into the Jim Thorpe Association's Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame.
A hill in Burnet County, Texas, was named for Pickett in 2021. A trail with an interpretive sign in Georgetown, Texas, honors Pickett.