Midnight the famed bucking horse from Fort Macleod, with original owner Jim McNab.
A legendary bucking bronc from Fort Macleod is one of the newest members of the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
The Alberta Sports Hall of Fame announced last month that Midnight will be inducted during a ceremony Sept. 27.
The ceremony will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame in Red Deer.
Midnight is one of 25 to be honoured in September with induction into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame.
Other members of the Class of 2025 are hockey’s Randy Gregg, Al Hamilton, Gordon (Duke) Keats, John McKenzie, Cecil (Tiny) Thompson, Paul Thompson and Garry Unger.
Former Canadian Football League and National Football League star Warren Moon will be inducted, along with former CFLers Joe Poplawski for football and soccer and Brian Fryer for football and track and field, and Pat Bowlen as a football builder.
Author W.P. Kinsella, Reno Lizzi and Orv Franchuk are being inducted for contributions to baseball, along with Mel Kowalchuk for baseball and soccer.
Motorsports athletes being inducted include Gary Beck, Ray Peets, Gordie Bonin, Gordon Jenner and Ron Hodgson.
Others being inducted include John (Red) Pollard and William Connelly for horse racing; Dianne Violini for five pin bowling; Wilf Girletz for rodeo; Cathy King and Jules Owchar for curling; and Gail Lee for curling and golf.
Midnight was foaled in 1916 on the Cottonwood Ranch, in the Porcupine Hills, west of Fort Macleod and was owned by Jimmy McNab, considered one of the best horse breakers and bronc busters in southern Alberta.
Midnight’s mother was a thoroughbred mare and his sire a Percheron-Morgan cross.
Jim McNab broke Midnight as a three-year-old for a saddle horse and used him for a top cowhorse for range work for two years.
McNab was the only man who ever rode Midnight, although his small daughter Grace used to ride the black gelding bareback around the ranch buildings.
In 1924 at the Fort Macleod Jubilee Rodeo, Midnight bucked several riders with ease and arrangements were made to have Midnight appear at the Calgary Stampede that same year.
After bucking off every rider who drew him in Calgary, Midnight was purchased for a record price of $500 by Strawberry Red Woll and Peter Welsh of the Alberta Stampede Co. Ltd., who were contracting Wild West Shows in Eastern Canada and United States.
In 1928 Midnight was purchased by Colonel Jim Eskew, who in turn sold the horse to Eddie McCarty and Verne Elliott of Wyoming and Colorado.
Midnight soon occupied first place in their famous string of bucking horse .
After being featured world wide in the rodeo field for several years, Midnight was retired at the conclusion of the Cheyenne Frontier Days contest in 1933. The great horse died in 1936
Tickets to the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame ceremony and luncheon can be reserved by calling 403-341-8614.
