Pete Knight

DESCRIPTION: "Pete Knight was a rider of horses, The best that I ever did see, But often a life in the saddle Is not what it's cracked up to be." "Ten thousand fans saw him carried Away from the field and the horse."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse injury death
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1937 - Death of Pete Knight
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 31, "Pete Knight" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Pete Knight, The King of the Cowboys"
cf. "Pete Knight's Last Ride"
NOTES [1608 words]: Pete Knight was born in Philadelphia, but lived for some years in Alberta, and seems to have been at least as famous in Canada as in the U.S.
Knight was one of the all-time horse-riding champions, and won top honors in 1932, 1933, 1935, and 1936. In 1937, however, he fell and was trampled by the horse "Duster," (not "Slow-Down," as the horse was called by Wilf Carter) and died of a punctured lung.
There are at least two books about Knight: Darrell Knight, Pete Knight the Cowboy King, Detselig Enterprises, 2004, and Jim Davis We Remember... Pete Knight Canadian Rodeo Cowboys' Association, 1976. Darrell Knigjht is Pete Knight's grand-nephew; he never met Pete, but he offers a lot of family tradition.
According to Darrell Knight, p. 23, "Pete Knight was the most accomplished bronc rider of the twentieth century, and the greatest hero that Alberta ever had or may ever have again. Wilf Carter's song "Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys" was a radio staple in Alberta for more than two decades after Knight's death (Knight, p. 21). (On the other hand, Knight was not famous enough to earn an entry in the Macmillan Dictionary of Canadian Biography, which has more than five thousand entries in its fourth edition!)
Ironically, the great rider was not born to the trade. "The Knights were grain farmers, not ranchers, and certainly not cowboys, as successive legends have often depicted. They were Americans" who managed large farms and hired immigrant labor to harvest it (Knight, p. 21).
Pete Knight's grandfather, also named Peter, had migrated from England to the United States in the period after the Civil War. Pete Knight's father William was one who came with him. They settled in Kansas. William Knight married Katherine Carson in 1884, and moved to Philadelphia a few years later (Knight, p. 30). It was there that William and Katherine's sixth child, Peter Charles Knight, was born on May 5, 1903 (Knight, p. 31). A few years later, William -- who apparently was restless and got tired of his work as a weaver -- moved the family to Oklahoma; it was there that Pete was first exposed to horses (Knight, p. 32). Then William ran across promotions designed to lure Oklahoma farmers to Alberta, Canada. He was hooked (Knight, pp. 33-34). He rode the rails to Alberta, verified that land was good and available, and went back to convince his family. Some of his children, old enough to make up their own minds, stayed in the United States, but Pete was one of those who made the move, which began in 1914 though the family was not fully settled until 1917 (Knight, pp. 34-35). Pete supposedly was breaking horses by 1914 (Knight, pp. 36-37). In 1918, he started getting rodeo training from a man by the name of Dave Togstead (Knight, pp. 40-41).
In June 1918, Knight came in second in the Crossfield Rodeo bucking horse competition. The prize money went to help him establish his own string of bucking horses (Knight, pp. 42-43) -- although "Midnight," the horse apparently most associated with him, was not one of them; it was owned by one Jim McNab (Knight, p. 51). This horse is the subject of the song "Midnight."
In 1923, the year the Calgary Stampede went from being an occasional to an annual event, he was invited to take part by the event's manager (Knight, p. 48). In the parade associated with the event, though, Pete's horse went out of control and his left leg was broken (Knight, pp. 50-51).
Knight's first big moment came in 1924, when he came in second, a fraction of a point behind the winner, at the Calgary Stampede (Knight, p. 29). It sounds as if this was out of the blue, because his results to that point were not impressive. He had an impressive ride on a horse named Alberta Kid that was reckoned extraordinarily hard to deal with (Knight, p. 55). Knight in fact won the final round, but another cowboy had done well enough in a preliminary round that he edged Knight in the overall scores (Knight, p. 56).
It sounds as if Knight took home his first title early the next year, when he won the 1925 Crossfield Stampede (Knight, p. 58). The stage was set for the 1925 Calgary Slam. Knight failed to make the final round (Knight, p. 60), but it seems pretty clear that he was hooked. He managed to buy a used Model T Ford so that he could travel longer distances to compete in shows (Knight, pp. 60-61).
In 1925, the Canadian rodeo world changed when Peter Welsh created the Alberta Stampede Company, a traveling rodeo. This was a bit like the American Wild West shows, but with less play-acting and more actual bronk-riding. It was a genuine competition, too -- pay depended on results. Pete Knight was one of those invited to take part (Knight, p. 64), and he earned $1000 for winning the Edmonton event (Knight, pp. 66-67). This let him buy property to farm, as well as getting a newer car (Knight, pp. 68-69). But he kept on riding. He didn't win every time -- but he won enough to keep adding to his cushion. Later that fall, in Montreal, he finally took on the horse Midnight -- and was thrown (Knight, pp. 78-79). But he kept trying. In 1927, he finally won the "Prince of Wales Cup" (Knight, p. 85, has a photo of him with the trophy) and one other contest at the Calgary Stampede -- the first person to win multiple competitions there (Knight, pp. 85-87). The Alberta Stampede Company was now well enough known to head to the United States for the big money (Knight, p. 91). But it folded in 1928 (Knight, p. 94). Knight was by then basically a full time rodeo cowboy; his brothers farmed his land, and his father died that spring (Knight, pp. 94-95).
Although Knight would have us believe that Pete Knight was always soft-spoken and even-tempered, there is at least one instance which belies this; at one contest, he became so upset at a judge's scoring that he physically accosted the judge, then, when separated, went to the store and bought three generic pairs of glasses to present to the judges (Knight, pp. 98-99).
It was while touring (in 1930, if I understood this right) that he met Ida Lee, nicknamed "Babe," who would become his wife (Knight, p. 101). They started courting seriously in 1931 (Knight, p. 113); he proposed in 1932, and they married that same year during a rodeo in Texas (Knight, p. 115).
In 1930, Pete won the Prince of Wales Cup at the Calgary Stampede for the second time, becoming the first rider to win twice (Knight, p. 104). Prizes were falling because of the Depression. But Knight was now clearly one of the greatest bronc riders out there. It let him make a pretty good living -- Knight, p. 116, estimates his income as $7000 per year. A strict inflation calculation makes that $150,000 per year in 2022 dollars, but this was the Depression. He and Babe were sleeping at good hotels wherever they went; Knight was somewhere between well-to-do and rich.
He got to know some interesting people, too; Knight, p. 125, has a picture of him with Powder River Jack Lee and Kitty Lee. Tom Mix suggested that he might try Hollywood, but Knight concluded it was not for him (Knight, pp. 136-137). He met Wilf Carter ("Montana Slim") in 1933 when Carter was trying to become a bronc rider. They became friends even though Knight told Carter to stick with singing; Carter wrote his first song about Pete, "Pete Knight, the King of the Cowboys," in 1934 (Knight, p. 157).
He could also be very generous. When another rodeo rider, Harry Knight (no relation), was badly injured at a show, Pete paid the hospital bills (Knight, p. 147).
In 1932, he won an invitation-only event and the "Dempsey Trophy" (after Jack Dempsey); he was declared the "World Champ Bronc Rider" for 1932 (Knight, p. 122). In 1933, he was "World's Champion Bucking Horse Rider" (Knight, p. 136), and won the Prince of Wales Cup a third time, apparently letting him keep the cup (Knight, p. 141). He missed the Calgary Stampede in 1934 after taking part in a disastrous attempt to introduce rodeos into Britain, but he did make a voyage to Australia that year (Knight, p. 155). And so on, through a monotonous list of events won and titles awarded. He remained at or near the top in public esteem until his busy year of 1937. In April of that year, his wife bore him his only child, Deanna Thomasine Knight (Knight, p. 166). A month later, they went to the rodeo in Hayward, California.
The horse Pete rode there was named "Duster"; it was one he had ridden successfully before (Knight, pp. 166-167). Not this time. The horse threw him, and he landed on his back on the ground. But the horse did not run away, as uncontrolled horses usually did. It jumped one more time before running away -- and its hooves came down right on Knight's chest (Knight, p. 167; Knight, p. 169, has a photo of him on Duster shortly before he was thrown).
Knight knew he was hurt, but macho man that he was, he chose to walk to the ambulance as the crowd applauded rather than let them put him in a stretcher. He collapsed very soon after and died in the emergency room (Knight, p. 168). Knight does not list a cause of death, but it sounds like reasons might have included broken ribs, internal bleeding, and collapsed lung(s).
His remains were eventually moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where Babe Knight lived in her later years (Knight, p. 172). Babe Knight died in 1987. Their daughter Diana was already gone by then, having died of cancer in 1982. She had one son and one daughter (Knight, p. 173), who are very likely still alive as of this writing.
Knight ended up in several rodeo halls of fame, the first big one bieng the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum of Oklahoma City in 1958 (Knight, p. 172). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.5
File: Ohr031

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