Barrelman Leon Coffee gestures towards the crowd as they applaud for him on his last day as a barrelman, before the bull riding during the long round of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Championship on Sunday, March 17, 2024, at NRG Stadium in Houston. The day
Sunday marked the end of an era at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, as Leon Coffee stepped into the barrel for the last time.
The legendary bullfighter and barrel man, who has been entertaining crowds for more than 30 years, will still make appearances at the annual event, but will not be working from the barrel that made him famous.
A few years ago, Chronicle photographer Brett Coomer and I followed Coffee around as he prepped for his performance.
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A former rodeo competitor, Coffee started with the HLS&R at the Astrodome in 1993, replacing Wilbur Plaugher, who retired after some 30 years on the job.
He had already been a rodeo clown for two decades, but the Houston rodeo, with the 60,000-plus attendance at the time, was a huge advance in the field. A couple years later, he went from bullfighting to full-time barrel man.
When he started at RodeoHouston, Coffee was one of only three men who had gone to the national finals as a bullfighter and barrel man.
“When I first started working the barrel, I didn’t realize it was as tough as it was,” Coffee said. “I’ve been knocked out more in the barrel than I ever have out of it.”
Coffee, who is from Blanco, a Hill Country town about an hour west of Austin, was born Luke Warm Coffee, as a joke courtesy of his father. Before he turned one, his parents renamed him Luke Leon.
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As funny as he is, and as energetic as his performances always have been, Coffee with his ever-present green hat and wild-colored shirts made audiences forget the danger in dealing with 2,000-pound bulls and saving riders who have been thrown off of them.
Coffee said he had broken more than 130 bones in his career, and died and was brought back to life in an ambulance once after being kicked in the head by a bull at the Washington State Fair.
He took on a lot of pain for our enjoyment.
RodeoHouston won’t be the same without him.
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Solomon: RodeoHouston won't be the same without legendary Leon Coffee
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18.03.2024
Barrelman Leon Coffee gestures towards the crowd as they applaud for him on his last day as a barrelman, before the bull riding during the long round of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Championship on Sunday, March 17, 2024, at NRG Stadium in Houston. The day
Sunday marked the end of an era at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, as Leon Coffee stepped into the barrel for the last time.
The legendary bullfighter and barrel man, who has been entertaining crowds for more than 30 years, will still make appearances at the annual event, but will not be working from the barrel........
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