The Return to the E
The COVID-19 crisis shut down most of the United States the same week Guthrie, Oklahoma’s Lazy E Arena hosted its 36th annual Cinch Timed Event Championship, paying all-around hand Taylor Santos $100,000 and change—the last big check paid out before rodeo cowboys found themselves unemployed for the first time since the Cowboy Turtles Association was formed in 1936.
The Lazy E, though, wouldn’t let cowboy sports stay down for long. The team joined forces with the Professional Bull Riders the last weekend in April to host the association’s first event back (and the first professional sporting event back), without fans but to a live audience on CBS Sports. And now, as public facilities across the Western world remain shuttered, the Lazy E—privately owned by the McKinney family—is taking its place as the epicenter of the cowboy world. That’s a position it was originally built for back in 1984, and one the owners and staff have been striving to reclaim.
When newspaper publisher and entertainment magnate E.K. Gaylord II built the Lazy E Arena, he did so to host the National Finals of Steer Roping in conjunction with the National Finals Rodeo just 30
