BILLINGS — Clint Branger conquered the fearsome Bodacious twice.
And that’s just the start of a long line of accolades for the retired bull rider from Roscoe.
Having competed at both the National Finals Rodeo and Professional Bull Riders World Finals, he’s performed under the biggest lights in his sport.
But it’s how Branger, 57, is spending time now with his loved ones and friends, and the work he does at the family ranch, that are “the highlights” of his life.
Ranching and raising bucking broncs on the ranch near Roscoe make for rewarding days for Branger.
Days at the base of the Beartooth Mountains can also be long but fruitful.
They’re the kind of days, even after a lucrative and highly successful bull riding career, that Branger dreamed of as a child.
“When I got done riding, I came home from bull riding in Phoenix,” Branger recalled in a recent interview with The Billings Gazette and 406mtsports.com of his last event in mid-March of 2000. “My dad (Chris) held on to the place well beyond my expectations. He probably thought I’d never come back. He never at one time thought of selling it.”
It’s the satisfaction of working at the family ranch where he grew up and spending time with those closest to him that Branger now cherishes most.
“What are the high points? The high points are today,” said Branger when asked about his bull riding highlights. “Right where I’m sitting here today is more important than anything in my past.
“The highlight of my life will be when I sell the calves this fall. Every year when I get to do this is what I dreamed of doing.”
And while there will always be a task to be accomplished at the ranch, Branger wouldn’t dream of missing the Montana Pro Rodeo Hall and Wall of Fame scholarship fundraising banquet Saturday at the Billings Hotel and Convention Center.
The 2000 PBR Ring of Honor recipient, Branger will receive another prestigious honor on Saturday evening. The retired bull rider will be inducted into the “Legends” category of the MPRHWF.
The Montana Pro Rodeo Hall & Wall of Fame is located outside of First Interstate Arena at MetraPark in Billings. The monument honors Montana champion rodeo cowboys and cowgirls, and features a statue of Billings-born rodeo world champion Dan Mortensen.
“It’s an honor. There are no words to describe it,” Branger, a founding member of the PBR, said of the recognition.
“I think it’s really neat I get to go to the Montana Hall and Wall of Fame in October and enjoy a night and see other people get inducted and enjoy my life.”
Starting early
Branger said he began riding calves when he was 6 and rode bulls from age 12 to 35.
“I started riding bulls, yearlings, when I was 12,” Branger said. “Some were big, stout bulls and that helped me to become a good rider and that’s what it takes — it’s a never-ending lesson, like life.”
After an illustrious career, Branger retired shortly after his 36th birthday on March 25, 2000.
Branger said it wasn’t the glory that drew him to bull riding.
“It didn’t have anything to do with money. I wanted to do it,” he said.
Among the highlights for Branger, a 1983 Absarokee High School graduate, were:
• A Montana high school all-around championship in 1983.
• The national collegiate bull riding championship he won for Northwest College (Wyoming) in 1985.
• Eight qualifications for the National Finals Rodeo.
• Four-time qualifier for the PBR World Finals.
Of winning his title at the College National Finals Rodeo, Branger said: “I can only just tell you it was a confidence builder. It was cool and a fun time. I was blessed. I can only thank my Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
Branger placed third in the PRCA standings in both 1990 and 1992. Another top season for the Roscoe cowboy was 1994, when he was atop the PBR standings for most of the season.
Birth of the PBR
Branger is one of 20 founding members of the PBR. Those 20 pioneering cowboys each invested $1,000 in 1992, in the belief that “bull riding deserved to be in the limelight and that it could succeed as a standalone sport,” according to the PBR media guide.
“I was fortunate to be in a time with a group of guys when they said let’s make an association,” Branger said. “That was a cool thing.
“It’s a cool thing to see the PBR today. … I’m very proud to be part of a group of guys. What we wanted was to see a guy make a million dollars riding bulls to become a champion. I’m proud of that — to see someone get paid to ride bulls and be a champion. I don’t know if it’s enough, but it’s better than it was.”
In 2007, the original shareholders in the PBR — which were then reported to be 13 who still owned their original stock according to Gazette archives — sold their interest to Spire Capital Partners. At the time, the PBR CEO said those 13 shareholders would be “multi-millionaires.”
“Being a bull rider did help me to come back here and build a house and helped me to start to buy this place,” Branger said.
Life after bull riding
In 2018, Branger married Janna Hampton Branger. Together they raise bucking horses.
“I fell in love with a girl from Wyoming, who is on her family ranch 33 miles south of Ten Sleep, Wyoming,” Branger said.
The couple spends time at both ranches.
“It’s four hours from here to her ranch,” Branger said. “We are going back and forth from there, too.”
When he retired from bull riding, Branger thought he might like to raise the bovine athletes but changed his mind.
“When I did quit riding, I thought about raising bucking bulls and I did for a year,” he said. “But, I didn’t want to have pipe fences around my place and that’s what I would have to do.”
Raising bucking horses was the perfect option.
“We don’t own a rodeo company. We do it as a pastime,” Branger said. “I enjoy going out and moving them around and raising them. … That’s why I enjoy it, for the day-to-day stuff.”
Branger also enjoys hunting and fly fishing. He has been hunting for elk on his ranch and the area since he was a youth.
For Branger — his wife and family, the land, and what it takes to maintain the ranch, are what’s important to him now.
Even through the “blood, sweat and tears” of ranching — the weather, low moisture years such as this one, and the fluctuation of the price of cattle — this is what Branger was born to do.
Through the ups and downs during Branger’s days of traveling and competing at the various rodeos and bull riding stops throughout the country, he always yearned to be back at the ranch.
“The bull riding was really a time in my life,” Branger said. “I was always wanting to come back home and be on this ranch. When I got done riding, I came back here with a vengeance and I couldn’t wait to run the place. It is one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been.
“I’m doing what I always wanted to do. I’m around cattle and the mountains and out in fresh air and doing things I’ve dreamed about doing.”
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