News- Cowboy Ball
This excerpt was originally published in the Missoulian (October 11, 2003).
Cowboy Ball By BETSY COHEN of the Missoulia
UM rodeo team fund-raiser has grown to a sold-out, $150-per-couple event LOLO - Most days, Bill Mytty's indoor riding arena is filled with flying hooves and whirling lassos as cowboys and their steeds practice the fine art of calf roping. Most days, it's hard to believe that the cavernous metal building with its dirt floor and occasional spot of manure is on one night a year the most sought after fine-dining venue in the state.
These days it's easy to see why.
For the past week, the riding facility has been a beehive filled with volunteers who have transformed the humble horse arena into a palace for the 12th annual Cowboy Ball fund-raiser for the University of Montana's rodeo team.
Although the dirt floor remains, it is now the arena for a 750-person bash scheduled for Saturday night, and there's a waiting list to get into the event, which costs $150 per couple.
Pat Dodson, an organizer of the ball, smiles when he looks across the arena decorated with pine trees and Christmas lights, and sees dining tables set with beautiful linens and china plates. Fine art is on display, along with meticulously crafted leatherworks and jewelry, all of which will be auctioned off during the ball.
After all these years, the before and after visions are stunning.
"To see what this event has evolved into is pretty amazing," he said.
Twelve years ago, Dodson and UM rodeo club adviser Joe Durso asked Mytty if they could hold a fund-raiser in the arena. Supporting the club, which does not have varsity status and receives little university funding, was a good idea, most people agreed, but dinner in a horse barn?
Twenty adventurous couples did show up the first year. They ate a cheap picnic dinner off paper plates and donated some cash - about $6,000 - to the cause, Dodson said.
Everyone who attended had so much fun they wanted to do it again the following year, but with a little more pizzazz and panache.
A rodeo club volunteer board of people from the Missoula community and the university was eventually organized to help further develop the fund-raiser, and with each successive year, the Cowboy Ball continued to gain momentum.
In the past few years, the event has regularly raised $75,000 to $100,000 for the club, which funds 14 academic scholarships for the rodeo team, and helps the club pay for coach's salaries, travel and gas expenses, and other costs the student athletes bump into as they crisscross the state for rodeo competitions.
It has become so successful the ball has spawned copy-cat efforts at Bozeman's Montana State University and Dillon's Western Montana College, said Kitty Lusse, rodeo club board member.
Despite the competition, the other events haven't wrangled the spotlight from UM's event, which continues to attract the greatest amount of support and donations, she said.
"I think one of the reasons that this is so successful is that there are so few things in the western part of the state that honor our Western heritage and tradition," Lusse said. "People are so enamored with the cowboy heritage and I think this has really filled a void."
It also helps that the event is in a unique setting, offers gourmet fare and serves inch-thick prime rib steaks as the main course.
"We realized if we were going to ask people to come out here and donate to the club, we had to serve a piece of meat people will remember," Lusse said. "We learned early on not to compromise on food."
The black-tie, blue-jean affair, say rodeo team members, is a highlight of the academic year.
"It's really neat to see so many different kinds of people come out and support us," said Megan Ruhkala, a team member who competes in barrel racing, break-away roping and goat tying. "The atmosphere is so energetic and positive, and everyone is here just to have a good time."
"It's the time when the team gets together with the board and everyone works to make everything turn out right," said Ross Eickhoff, a UM student who competes in calf roping, steer wrestling and team roping.
"It's nice that the team gets some recognition," he said. "When I first came here, not a lot of people even knew we had a rodeo team."