Hooked on bulls

Editor's note: Ruth Nicolaus is the 'media contact” for Big Time Bull Riding, which is holding its 13th annual show in Dubuque this weekend.

By Ruth Nicolaus, community contributor

DUBUQUE - Bull riding has been in Reno Meeks' blood for a long time.

The 19-year-old Marion cowboy grew up attending rodeos with his dad, a former bullfighter and rodeo clown.

At the age of 10, he got on his first bull, actually a junior bull, and was 'hooked.”

He loved it.

Since then, he's competed in two years of high school rodeo, in the bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding.

Now, for the second year, he's taking the reins of the Big Time Bull Riding, in its 13th year at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque. The event runs Friday and Saturday.

His dad started the event and now Reno is in charge.

As producer, his duties are to set up the arena, oversee the dirt that comes in, take the bull riders' entries and 'all the small finishing details,” he said.

During the event, he serves as arena director, like a 'symphony conductor” in charge of making sure things run smoothly.

Meeks, who graduated from Anamosa High School last year, is a freshman at Kirkwood Community College, majoring in beef production management. He was in fourth grade when his parents gave him his first cattle, two heifers. His goal, after college, is to raise beef cows.

But this weekend, he'll be running a bull riding show, in the middle of an arena full of bulls and cowboys.

Tickets range in price from $22 to $33.50 and are available at the Five Flags box office and through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com.

For more information, call the Five Flags box office at (563) 589-4258 or visit the event on its Facebook page.