Leon Coffee: Houston rodeo clown retiring after historical career, blazes trail for other Blacks
HOUSTON - He's been a fixture with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo for more than 30 years, but now Leon Coffee is retiring after a historic career.
One of America's most beloved rodeo clowns has entertained us in Houston since the 1990s, but now the legend may not make us laugh at the livestock show, at least not in the rodeo ring, for much longer.
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"You know I've been knocked out more in the barrel than I ever have outside of it?" Coffee asks me, and just how many times has the bull gotten the better of him?
"Quite a few," Coffee laughs.
He is comical and courageous. For decades, Leon Coffee has been a Rodeo Clown or Barrelman and Bullfighter.
"It's a feeling you have to feel to know," he explains regarding being the target of a raging bull. I'll just have to take his word for it I tell him, and he laughs. "I've got a lot of job security in this job. Not everybody wants this job."
After 31 years with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the living legend is leaving it all behind, retiring at the end of the season, but will return in a different capacity.
"I wouldn't take a million dollars for what I've done, but I wouldn't give you a dollar to do it all over again," Coffee laughs. "Nobody has ever outrun Father Time. He is undefeated. I heard Charles Barkley say that a few years ago."
At nearly 70 years old and still one of the few Blacks in the business, Coffee's mentor Myrtis Dightman is almost 88.
"He's my hero. That man inspired me to do it. I've told him that many times," Coffee explains.
"I used to try to show the people it could be done. A lot of people said, 'They ain't going to let you do that, you're Black. They ain't going to do that.' The bulls don't care what color you are," says Retired Bull Rider Myrtis Dightman, who's known as the Jackie Robinson of Rodeo.
Dightman, who's the first Black bull rider to compete in the National Finals Rodeo, is featured in a new Ozarka Water commercial. The brave trailblazer says battling bulls was always "easy" for him.
"I wasn't scared of bulls. I was raised up on a ranch, and we had some bad bulls," Dightman explains.
His son shared a photo of his father, the rodeo icon, when he was just eight-years-old. The old black and white picture from the 1940s shows Dightman on his childhood ranch when he began rounding up bulls as a little boy.
These two well-loved legends have each made history.
"I'm in just about every Hall of Fame that there is. My wife told me the other day I was in 14 different halls of fame," Coffee explains.
"I've gotten to go to a lot of places and meet a lot of people I probably never would have met," adds Dightman.
"He was my inspiration and I want to make him and a few others proud of who we are," Coffee adds.
I'm certainly not the only one saying 'Mission accomplished' to that.
After quite the journey, "This has been my life, not my career. This has been my life," Coffee explains. He says it's actually emotional for him knowing he will soon wash off the makeup for good and make us laugh at his last Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
"How does that old song go? The tears of a clown when there's no one around. Don't let my glad expression give you the wrong impression...I can still go out and be funny and stuff and have fun with the people in the stands, but I can't get in that arena anymore. (So we may see you in the stands?) Maybe...I don't know what the future holds. I just live day by day. What the good Lord gives me I'll take and what he takes away I'll accept," says Coffee.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo runs through Sunday, March 17, 2024.