Jonnie Jonckowski didn’t meekly break down gender limitations within the ever harmful sport of bull using, she openly rode by obstacles en path to changing into a Hall of Fame pioneer within the male-dominated rodeo enviornment.
Now the retired Jonckowski desires to see extra doorways open within the sport for ladies, and her dream is being revived by athletes like Najiah Knight, the 17-year-old who’s attempting to make it to the very best degree of the all-male Professional Bull Riders tour.
“Let them girls perform,” Jonckowski mentioned. “They’re not going to play tackle football in the NFL, but some of them gals are damn tough and they’re damn athletic and they can really shine on their own platform.”
That embodies the fiery Jonckowski‘s career, which included women’s bull using championships in 1986 and 1988 however ended earlier than the PBR was launched in 1992.
Bull using, although, wasn’t her first athletic aim.
Jonckowski achieved success on the monitor at Division III Eastern Montana College, reaching the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials with excessive hopes of qualifying for the Montreal Games. But Jonckowski clipped a hurdle in a qualifying warmth and injured her again.
Her Olympic desires had been dashed in a flash – and so was her monitor and subject profession.
“I was at like 21, 22 years old going, ‘What the heck am I going to do now?’” Jonckowski mentioned. “I really didn’t see four more years in my future of training.”
What she did see upon returning to Montana was a poster a few rodeo that modified her life and set her on an historic path to changing into the primary skilled feminine bull rider.
Jonckowski had some expertise as a teen engaged on ranches, so she thought rodeoing could be price a shot. She walked right into a bar, met somebody who knew a factor or two about using bareback broncos and satisfied him to coach her.
“I was too naive,” mentioned Jonckowski, 69. “I didn’t even know it was dangerous. I found out pretty quickly how bad it can be. It’s great when it’s great, but boy when it’s bad, it’s really bad.”
She as soon as had her nostril nearly fall off after getting kicked by a bull between her eyes. A plastic surgeon’s conference was going down close by, and Jonckowski mentioned she was in a position to get a process executed to reset her nostril.
“There were women in rodeo a long time ago, but when Jonnie Jonckowski wanted to get into it, there weren’t a lot of competitive opportunities for women riders,” nine-time world champion Ty Murray mentioned. “She had to knock down doors everywhere she turned.”
Jonckowski additionally labored as an advocate for feminine riders like Knight, however when she retired from that work after 23 years, the momentum for ladies in rodeo waned.
While Knight is attempting to get to the highest, Jonckowski has proven what a lady can obtain within the sport when given the prospect, even going from the broncs to the bulls and believing from the start she would succeed.
“I seriously thought I was a good enough athlete that I could win a world title in a year or two, I really did,” Jonckowski mentioned. “There were some great riding girls out there. There were about a dozen of them that can give a lot of guys a run for their money, but I still thought I could beat them.”
And she didn’t need any particular remedy.
When coming into rodeos, she went along with her nickname “Jonnie” moderately than given title “Lynn.”
Jonckowski mentioned numerous the rodeo promoters would use her for advertising and marketing.
“The announcer would make a big deal, ‘Hey guys, we’ve got a gal here in the stands who thinks she can ride anything you run.’ And, of course, the crowd would stick around and watch one last ride of a gal trying to ride a bull, so that’s where I got most of my practice,” she mentioned.
Capturing her two girls’s championships and breaking by gender limitations earned Jonckowski induction in 1991 into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame.
“Jonnie’s guts and try were definitely something special,” Murray mentioned. “There aren’t many humans who would want to do what she did, let alone women. … It’s inspiring for everyone to see a girl that passionate and resilient who goes after her dream no matter the danger or what other people say or think.”
