Most people are happy when they can do one thing well.

Jim Gladstone was one of those rare multi-talented individuals who could do a lot of things very well.

And while his name will forever be etched in rodeo history as the 1977 World Champion calf roper, the First Nations cowboy left his mark in both sports and the legal world in ways every bit as spectacular as his rodeo career.

Gladstone was born just north of Cardston on the Blood Reserve, the son of Canadian Rodeo Hall of Famer Fred Gladstone and grandson of renowned Canadian Senator James Gladstone.

“I learned to ride when I was three or four and was going to rodeos from very early on,” Jim recalls. “We had an arena at our house and it was a very social thing—guys would stop in on their way back from Calgary—they’d rope a little and party a little. So I was introduced to roping at a really young age and I was able to get pretty good at it pretty quickly.”

After competing in high school rodeos and going to only two amateur rodeos Gladstone entered his first pro rodeo at Taber when he was just sixteen and filled his permit with a $350.00 win. Success followed the talented roper and In 1969 he won the first of three Canadian roping titles—the others came in 1971 and 1973 and then went to five Canadian Finals Rodeos (the first CFR was staged in 1974) but had no luck at the Finals finishing second twice and third once. “I was season leader a few times during that time but just couldn’t seem to get it done at the Finals.”

But it was on the world stage that Gladstone stepped into rodeo’s brightest spotlight. Having already qualified for the NFR in 1974 and ’75 Gladstone won the sudden-death finale in 1977. He was the first Canadian from north of the 49th parallel to win a timed event world title pocketing $7166 in go round money and winning the average as well for a $5000 bonus. His total time of 119.7 seconds for ten calves was a record at the time, eclipsing the old mark by five and a half seconds.

Then in 1978 he was poised to win it again having to be only 8.2 on his final calf to earn his second title. But disaster struck on that last run and his rope broke after he’d caught the calf and his chance for a second world championship slipped away. “I guess I was lucky in 1977 and unlucky in ’78,” Gladstone admits philosophically.

One place Gladstone never enjoyed the success he’d hoped for was Calgary. “I just couldn’t win there. I finished second three times and I was flagged out to win it in 1973,” Gladstone chuckles. Then he adds. “It was my dad who flagged me out.” (Fred, a two time Canadian roping champion was a chute boss and judge by that time).

But even at the peak of his rodeo career, Jim Gladstone found the time and energy to excel at other things. Raised in the basketball hotbed of southern Alberta, the tall lean athlete played in five national championships for the Senior Men’s Lethbridge Chinooks.

He recalls the time he was competing at the Edmonton Pro Rodeo with his gym wear under his rodeo clothes. After he roped and bulldogged at the rodeo he grabbed a cab and raced to the gym where the Native Basketball Championship was being played, pulling off the western duds en route to the basketball game and running into the gym just in time for tipoff.

After winning the world calf roping title, Gladstone was the first rodeo athlete to be invited to compete at Canadian Superstars in Toronto, a televised competition of athletics events featuring the best athletes in Canada—the program was an offshoot of a highly successful Superstars show in the US. “I didn’t win it but I did pretty well there,” Gladstone smiles.

But sports weren’t the only area of excellence for the Alberta talent. Jim Gladstone returned to school, first getting 21 courses in two years at Lethbridge Junior College and at Olds, then heading off to Saskatoon to study Native Law and finally from 1983 to ’85 studying law at the University of Alberta. With ranching and legal work taking up more and more time, Gladstone quit pro rodeo to concentrate on his work as an increasingly busy Tribal and criminal lawyer. In the 1990’s Gladstone reached the peak of his legal career, winning the appeal of the Harley McMaster murder conviction at the Supreme Court of Canada.

“We’d lost an appeal in a lower court and it was something to even get to the Supreme Court and then to win that appeal was really pretty big at the time,” Gladstone recounts

And his rodeo career wasn’t over quite yet. The multi-faceted Gladstone would return to his roots and win several titles at the Indian National Finals Rodeo and in Senior Pro Rodeo where he won an All Around championship as well.

Jim Gladstone was inducted into the Canadian Rodeo Hall of Fame in September of 2000.

Jim passed away May 16, 2015. All of us in the Canadian rodeo family extend condolences to Jim’s family and many friends.