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Billy Ray Thunder (born William Ray Higginbottom) has been riding bulls and broncs bareback for nearly 30 years. They call him "The Living Legend, a title he's earned over the years. He's unique in a number of ways. For one thing, he's a Black Indian. Secondly, he's 6'3", 225 lbs. and over 60 years old. This doesn't make him the oldest, active, professional rodeo cowboy, but it does put him in the senior category. Many, rodeo cowboys don't continue to compete professionally beyond their 30's, in his case that's when he started. As with jockeys, the majority of bull riders and bronc riders are much smaller than Billy Ray.

Early Life
Billy Ray Higginbottom was born in Akron, Ohio on September 20th, 1954 to a mother who is Huron, Erie and Black, while his father is Choctaw, Erie and Black. Billy Ray is one of millions of Black American Indians, many of whom keep their heritage to themselves, never letting on that they are part Native American. In Billy Ray's case he wears his Native American heritage on his neck, literally. That's one of the first things you notice when you meet him, is that he's Black and wears a medicine pouch around his neck with Native American beaded jewelry in one ear and on his wrist.

Enslaved Africans and Native Americans had a number of reasons to combine forces. Native Americans needed to increase their numbers, men were valued as warriors and women for their domestic skills and ability to reproduce. Among Native American tribes the incorporation of warriors captured in battle was common, as was the incorporation of escaped slaves. Some tribes engaged in this practice so much so that they became indistinguishable from the former African slaves they adopted into their tribe. The symbiotic relationship formed by the merger of the children of Africa with the children of America bore much fruit, saving Native Americans from near annihilation and providing the children of former African slaves with freedom and a real connection to the land.

The similarity between African and Native American cultures facilitated the process. Both groups knew how to work the land and use the flora and fauna to produce everything needed to sustain life. Even the martial culture of both groups was compatible. Both groups were familiar with the art of war, while at the same time, both groups believed in allowing their enemies to escape and fight another day.

While horses were unknown in the Americas before they were imported by American colonists, African nations all over North and West Africa had developed their own equine culture, which included using them in warfare. This usage continues to this day, although it's more for show than anything else, today.

Education
He attended Archbishop Hoban High School from 1969-1973, where he was a defensive end on the school football team. After graduating in 1973 he joined the Army, followed by a stint in the Navy and reenlisted in the Army, before he'd had enough of military life and decided to try his hand at professional football.

Career
While in the service Billy Ray was also part of a semi-pro football team in Germany, so pro-football seemed like a good fit. He tried out for the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys, without making the team in either case. After a short stint at the University of Akron Billy Ray found his true calling, quite by accident. Billy Ray's connection with horses goes all the way back through his father, who was a local expert on horses. When his stepbrother, Anthony Winfield, invited him to a rodeo in Georgia, where he was going to do some bull riding, Billy Ray had to check it out. African Americans left the South and an agrarian lifestyle in a series of migrations during the early part of the 20th century. Rodeos, horses and bulls and access to them are far and few between in our modern-day cities. The portrayal of "The Wild, Wild West," cowboys and rodeos as all White, or nearly all White hasn't made a career in rodeo any more attractive to urbanized African Americans. When he went to check out his stepbrother he was intrigued.

As the story goes, he met some buckle bunnies there and naturally wanting to impress the ladies he bragged about his riding skills. His step brother offered to loan Billy Ray his outfit and set everything up for him to show off his non-existent riding skills, after everyone else was done. Billy Ray tried to back out, but every excuse he came up with was shot down by Anthony. Anthony and Billy Ray agreed that Billy Ray would mount up and ready himself, inside the gate, on top of a 2,000 lb. bull. Anthony was supposed to pull him off before the gate opened. Unluckily, for Billy Ray, Anthony did not pull him off at the last minute, as they had agreed. Billy Ray ended up in the hospital with a couple of broken ribs and the girl by his side. For the next 19 years he rode bulls in a number of pro-rodeo events around the world sanctioned by the PRCA, the International Professional Rodeo Association and the Rodeo Cowboys Association. For the last 13 years he's been riding bucking broncs.

Mentoring
Billy Ray feels strongly about getting young Black people involved in the rodeo tradition of America's Black cowboys, like Bill Pickett, Nat Love, Bose Ikard, James Beckwourth, Stagecoach Mary and Bass Reeves. Each of these individuals made significant contributions to the American cowboy tradition and the history of the American West. Wherever he goes Billy Ray counsels and mentors youth about all the ways they can begin to be involved in the continuation of an American tradition and earn college scholarships.