Sheriff Edward F. Echols served as Pima Co. Sheriff  for five terms. In 1924, Echols traveled to London with Tex Austin, who presented the first Rodeo  "them BluddyGawdblasted Englishmun s had ever seen".
 

ED ECHOLS ( Mr. Rodeo) tells of birth of Tucson 'Fiesta'
Ed Echols -- five time sheriff of Pima county, one time world champion cowboy and founder of the Fiesta de los Vaqueros -- is Mr. Rodeo to all Tucsonans.
From a wealth of experiences he has an endless store of well told stories which delight all hearers as they watch his wonderfully mobile face and expressive gestures.
For this reason on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the affair Sheriff Ed started in 1925, the Citizen herewith presents his story of the beginning of Rodeo in Tucson (illustrated with photographs taken as he told it).

from the      Tucson Daily Citizen  Feb,23. 1955

By Ed Echols (in his words!) as told to Clifton Abbott:

  "Rodeo? Who started the first Tucson Rodeo? Well, I guess I was the first one said 'Le's have one' and I've been sort of regretting it ever since.
In 1924 I had just got back from London where I went with Tex Austin who put on the first rodeo them Englishmun's had ever saw. They'd been quite a bit about it in the papers and one day Col. Parker come out to my ranch in Benson and wanted to know how it went.
I told him it went just fine and said I thought we ought to have one in Tucson.
In London, that first rodeo (I wish I could pronounce it for you like them English- they give it a long, whanging noise like they do everything else) drew the largest paid attendance any affair ever had. We had 116,000 paid admissions one afternoon.
I didn't like England very much -- too far east, too much 'tay' and not enough coffee -- and we were there five weeks and it rained four. Logs sprouted shoots four and five feet long.
And, I was a little nervous, I guess. I was the fourth man out to tie my steer and I got to wonder where I'd go if all of them 116,000 people started running.
But we toughed 'er out and had a good show.
One day over by some loading chutes they was an English feller sittin' there and I told him some of them horses was a little mean an' he'd better move or he might get hurt. He asked me 'Ahtheyhosh' or something like that. I couldn't understand him. So I told him again. Little later here they come; broncs kicked over the chute and sent him aspinnin'. Ahtheyhosh? Ahtheyhosh? I said 'Can't you speak English' and got an interpreter. What the poor feller had been askin' was 'Are they harse?'
Why, boy, in another 100 years those Englishmuns will have developed a language all their own and it won't be any use for us gringos to try to talk to them at all.
The English didn't know a thing about rodeo, of course, but they were game. We opened the bronc riding to all comers and at least 40 of them would want to ride every day. Couldn't have that, too many, but we did let four a day ride.
One day an old feller -- kind of a doctor, I think he was, quiet and a gentleman -- was fixin' to get down on a bronc in the chute and he asked me: 'What are this horses tactics?'
I said: ' His tactics is to kick you in the belly and run off with the saddle.'



We called that horse Midnight and he was a mean one. He was the real old genuine Midnight, but he could play the part all right. I told the old feller that he ought to forget about that horse, but he rolled up his sleeves and put his little cap on a post and they let him out.
That old tall, black horse run about 50 yards and started to pitch. That old feller rode him for four or five jumps and then got his foot hung in a stirrup.
That horse started kickin' that old man in the face and head and he run and kicked for a quarter of a mile. Sounded like a mule kickin' a quarter of beef. You could hear it all over the arena.
I was the first one got to him and his mouth was packed full of dirt. I tried to gouge it out with my fingers, but couldn't. Some doctors come up and started feeling him over to see what was broke.
I said: 'Try to dig that mud out of his mouth and maybe he can get some breath.'
They tried, but couldn't and the old feller didn't get another breath.
Then I remembered just before he got on Midnight and I tried to talk him out of it he had said 'Young feller, I know my business.'
I had told him that if he had any business he had better take care of it before he got down on that horse. But that's the way the English was.
Well, I got back to Arizona and the first horse I got on pitched me off and broke my ankle. That was 31 years ago and I think I'm going to have some bones takened out yet.
Then Col. Parker and Leighton Creamer and Capt. woodruff who had been over to Fort Wachookee dropped by and we wrote up two or three tablets makin' plans for the first Tucson rodeo.
Then we had a meetin' here at the Chamber of Commerce and they was a lot of good citizens there. They put up $5,000.00 to underwrite the show.
We had no grandstand or any arena and had to start from scratch. Cramer had 160 acres south of Pima street and we leveled it off -- cost us a dollar a yard. We built a hog-proof fence and a grandstand to seat 2,500.
We had bronc ridin' and bulldoggin' and steer ropin' and calf ropin'. Calf ropin' was the most popular and drew 54 contestants. Steer ropin' was next and 45 men stepped up and paid their $150 entry fee.
Only real accident was a drunk tried to bulldog a steer from an automobile. He fell off and rolled under and we all thought he was surely dead, but that man's still livin' today.
Well, we liked $11,000 to pay for all the work, but the rodeo was a bug success. It was very encouraging the way people came from town and from all country around.
That was all 30 years ago. The rodeo startin' tomorrow will be the 30th one we've had since then and I've been fourflushin' around, wavin' my hat to boost every one of them.
How do rodeos and rodeo cowboys compare with the old-timers?
Rodeo is pretty commercialized today and New York is a long way from cow country.
But they are the same breed of men. Good, tough boys and not a-scared to try anything.
I'll tell you this, you can't see a better show for the money anywhere, anytime.