In 2003, Sam Gress was crowned a world champion the first time, winning the freestyle bullfights in Ada, Okla. Age: 28
Born: Jan. 23, 1980
Hometown: Hutchinson, Kan.
In 2003, Sam Gress was crowned a world champion the first time, winning the freestyle bullfights in Ada, Okla.
Since then, he’s made a name among the top bullfighters in the game, winning a share of the title of 2006 Dickies National Champion with his good friend, Wacey Munsell of Ulysses, Kan. In 2007, the Kansans teamed together for the Professional Bullfighters’ Daisy Protection Bullfight Tour world championship.
That’s a pretty strong pedigree for a cowboy 10 years in the business.
“Justin Rumford got me conned into trying it,” Gress said of the third-generation Kansas stock contractor. “I liked it, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Gress and Rumford grew up together, working with cattle at the Rumford ranch in Abbyville, Kan., a stone’s throw from Gress’s Hutchinson home. “I fought at bull ridings, open rodeos and college rodeos, then I got my pro card in 2001.”
Besides being the runner-up at the 2005 Dickies championship, Gress has also been selected to battle bulls at the Prairie Circuit Finals Rodeo four times. Last October, he teamed with Munsell to work that championship.
The defending champs put together a quality run during the Daisy Protection Bullfights during the Colby Yates Challenge in Sulphur Springs, Texas, in mid-August 2008.
“When you’re doing freestyle, it’s just you and the bull, and that’s the only thing you have to concentrate on,” Gress said. “When you’re doing protection, there are five players out on the field that you have to watch. You have to be on your toes.”
A state qualifier as a high school golfer at Hutchinson High School, Gress sometimes takes a cerebral approach to fighting bulls. There’s also a love for being part of this extreme sport. And now that protection bullfights are a major competition, it offers him a wonderful outlet.
“I like the competition because they’ve taken it to another level,” he said. “There’s fighting bulls at a rodeo, and there’s fighting bulls at a PBF event. The PBF is at such a high level, you’ve got to bring your A game every time.”