Submitted photo
Don Yates and his wife, Marlen, and Murphey Bohlmann, current CSU Rodeo president of Steamboat Springs, Colo.
On Saturday, April 1, Don Yates was inducted into the 2023 Colorado State University Cowboy Wall of Fame in Ft. Collins, Colo.
Yates and his wife, Marlen, are both long-time Bosque Farms residents. After 35 years, he retired from the Farm Bureau Insurance agency in 2013.
Yates attended Colorado State A & M from 1952-57 as a vocational agriculture major. In his freshman year, he won the bull riding at the annual College Days Rodeo in Ft. Collins.
In 1954, Yates won the calf roping, bull riding and placed second in the bareback riding competitions in Ames, Iowa. In 1954, he qualified for the College Rodeo Finals in bull riding was a member of the 1954 CSU team that won the National Championship in Lake Charles, La. This was the first time a non-Texas college team took the championship, scoring a total 3,506 points.
During his senior year, Yates was elected president of the CSU Rodeo Club. That year, he also won the National Intercollegiate Championship in bareback riding, which included 52 colleges and universities.
Yates graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from CSU in 1957. He is a proud veteran and served the U.S. Army in Korea.
More than 28 family members and friends from Virginia, Idaho, Colorado, Nebraska and, of course, New Mexico, were in attendance for Yates to receive this prestigious award.
Mike Powers spent more than 40 years as a television news and sports anchor, mostly in the Albuquerque market. He has won numerous awards including New Mexico Sportscaster of the Year. He covers a wide range of sports, including the Valencia County prep scene.
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April 18, 2024
