Emmy award-winning former anchor Fanchon Stinger: First Black woman to own elite bulls in PBR

In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series "28 Black Stories in 28 Days." We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This is the third installment of the series.

Fanchon Stinger grew up in Detroit, far from the rustic, out-of-the-way fields of a farm, far from the cows and sheep and far from the life where a cowboy hat and boots were daily attire.

But Stinger's parents were from the south. She spent her summers on her grandfather's farm. She learned to ride horses. She went to the rodeos -- and her favorite event was bull riding. There was something magical about those bulls and the way those riders battled. She loved the hats and the boots. But especially those monstrous beasts.

For years, Stinger kept tucked away her childhood passion, which was captured in a photo she now cherishes -- Stinger as a toddler petting a calf at her grandfather's farm.

She kept it tucked away because she had college to attend and a degree to earn that led to a three-decade, Emmy award-winning career as a broadcaster, 12 of those years at Fox 59 News in Indianapolis.

But as Stinger anchored the nightly news, she never forgot what she had told her father in college. "One day, I'm going to own a bull named Stinger." Her father, who also loved bull riding, told Stinger it would probably be better to focus on academics and "stop worrying about these bulls for now."

Stinger didn't stop thinking about the bulls. She studied the sport of bull riding and watched it on television whenever she could. She traveled the country to Professional Bull Riders (PBR) events.

Then, finally, while an anchor at Fox 59 in 2020, Stinger became the proud owner of two 1,800-pound beasts, Stinger and Lil Hott.

And with that she made PBR history, becoming the first Black woman to own bulls competing in PBR’s top series, Unleash the Beast.

"This has been part of who I am my whole life," Stinger said. "I've worn cowboy hats my whole life. I've always loved bull riding. This was always the dream."

'You can't be a Black cowboy'

In the bucking world of dirt-covered arenas, there aren't many Black bull owners and Stinger is the only Black woman who owns bulls competing at the top level. Black riders are also lacking at elite competitions in PBR.

Ezekiel Mitchell is the only Black rider in the top 35, according to PBR. He is currently ranked 29th in the world. But because of his color, growing up in Rockdale, Tex., people would always ask Mitchell why he was wearing boots.

"And I’d tell them I was a cowboy," Mitchell told USA Today in 2021. "And they’d be like, ‘There’s no such thing as a Black cowboy. You can’t be a Black cowboy.'"

That was before Mitchell strung up a 55-gallon drum in his yard, climbed on top as if it were a bull and taught himself to ride. That was before he became one of the best in the sport, making appearances in the PBR World Finals.

"The story of professional Black bull riders remains one of the most fascinating, and still mostly unknown and untold, pieces of American sports history," Josh Peter wrote in his 2021 USA Today article. "We know about the history of Black athletes in professional baseball, football, basketball and other sports, but bull riding is often forgotten when it comes to history. It shouldn't be."

Among trailblazing Black riders of the sport are Charles Sampson who, in 1982, became the first Black bull rider to win a world championship. In 1964, Myrtis Dightman became the first Black cowboy to compete at National Finals Rodeo (NFR), where the bull riders vied for the world title.

"Just keep riding the bulls like you('re) riding them and turn white," Dightman said Freckles Brown, a famous white rider, once told him. Dightman went on to become one of the best bull riders of all time and was once referred to as "the Jackie Robinson of rodeo."

There is some history, albeit sparse, to be found on Black bull riders, but there is even less to be found on Black owners. When Stinger began her journey in PBR, she wasn't trying to break color barriers. She was simply doing what she had dreamed of since she was a little girl.

But Stinger has become a woman to look up to in those dirt-covered arenas and she is breaking color barriers.

"Can a group of snot-slinging bucking bulls help unite a divided country?" Andrew Giangola, vice president of strategic communications with PBR, writes in his book Love & Try: Stories of Gratitude and Grit from Professional Bull Riding.

"Fanchon Stinger believes so."

She has a 'high-wattage zest for the sport'

Stinger's journey to becoming a bull owner started at PBR's World Finals in 2009, when she flew out to Las Vegas on a mission. She didn't know anyone in the professional bull riding industry but she knew of Chad Berger, one of the most successful bull stock contractors in the league. And Stinger wanted to meet him.

"Stalking is too harsh of a word," Giangola writes, "but Berger will joke that’s what Stinger did."

At the World Finals, Stinger found Randy Bernard, then CEO of Professional Bull Riders and IndyCar, "who appreciated Fanchon’s high-wattage zest for the sport," Giangola says. "Bernard understood the power of media connections for a sport clawing into the mainstream."

At a fan experience, he introduced Stinger to Berger, and they hit it off. She became friends with Berger and Bernard. But the timing wasn't right in 2009 to buy her first bull, Stinger said. Her broadcasting career was at its height and she was about to land a new job.

In 2010, Fox 59 offered Stinger their evening anchor spot and she made the move to Indianapolis. Another decade would pass before she would finally make her PBR dream come true.

First, Stinger was focused on that other dream she had as a teen, to make a difference in the cutthroat world of TV news.

'You can do anything'

Growing up in Detroit, Stinger's parents always told their two daughters they could be anything they wanted to be. No goal was too high to reach. No idea was without merit.

Stinger's parents and grandparents broke their own color barriers throughout their lives; her father was the first Black valedictorian in his town. Their encouragement, Stinger told IndyStar when she retired in May, gave her confidence and a foundation of faith she's carried through her life and career.

"They were very intentional about giving us the message that you are not a victim, no matter what anyone says about you," she said. "... You are a victor. You can do anything. Why? Because God says we're all made equal."

Stinger's path to broadcasting started in high school when she was doing research for a career presentation. Stinger was flipping through a book and happened to land on a section about journalism. When she read those pages, Stinger said, she felt a "little flicker deep in the depths of (her) soul."

"At 15, I didn't realize what that was," she told IndyStar. "But ... that was God (igniting) in me what he designed me to do and the gifts he had placed in me that I didn't even realize I had."

Stinger spent 30 years using that gift, most of her career at Detroit's Fox 2 News and Fox 59. She won 15 Emmys as a reporter and anchor, one that came while working in Detroit in 2001 when Stinger was sent to New York City to cover the 9/11 tragedy.

In Indianapolis, Stinger says one of her proudest accomplishments came in 2017 when she worked on a story that brought police and family members of unsolved murder victims together in conversation. Stinger said she always tried to build relationships and connections with communities when telling stories.

"There have been people who have gone through horrible things who trusted me to tell their stories because they knew I would tell it honestly, and I would tell it compassionately, and I took that as such a huge responsibility," she said. "I never wanted to breach anyone's trust. I never wanted to misrepresent anything."

From journalist to PBR bull owner

In 2020, as Stinger's broadcast career neared its end, the time was finally right to delve into PBR. She partnered with Berger and Daniel and Melissa Brunner to become the owner of Stinger and Lil Hott.

Both bulls compete in PBR's elite series Unleash the Beast. "These are the best bulls and best bull riders," Stinger said. She spends a lot of time at arenas and with bulls. She loves the thrill of watching Stinger and Lil Hott compete.

But she hasn't left her broadcasting days behind, not even close. Stinger is the anchor of PBR Now, a weekly show on RidePass on Pluto TV. She is also a contributor and host on Western Sports Roundup and NFR Tailgate airing on The Cowboy Channel.

She is immersed in the sport and loves the sport for many reasons. Of course, there is the excitement of watching the riders compete. "But I'm an animal lover. I loved the bulls," Stinger said. "Then I learned how well cared for these bulls are."

Stinger had heard the myths. "They are made to buck, mistreated, testicles tied up," she said. "All those things couldn’t be further from the truth The doctors, the chiropractors, the food, how long they're allowed to be in trailers, they are treated so well. These bulls are living the life of a Super Bowl athlete."

As she makes her way among the crowds at PBR events, Stinger still stands out. Black riders and owners are few in PBR, but the Black fan base is growing. In the past three years, it has doubled from 4% to 8%, according to PBR.

While the sport features a majority of white riders, about 30% of qualified riders in the PBR’s elite series are Brazilian. PBR’s first champion is Brazilian Adriano Moraes and the only three-time World Champions are Moraes and Silvano Alves, also a Brazilian.

"The sport is multicultural with people from all over the world," Stinger said. "That’s another stereotype I want to help break."

More than 82 million people call themselves PBR fans, and they come from all ethnic and demographic backgrounds, Stinger said. But 43% of that fan base is female.

Which is why Stinger has taken her ownership in PBR to another, philanthropic, level. In 2020, she launched Grit & Grace Nation, a leadership program to mentor middle school and high school girls. Grit & Grace connects those girls with female mentors who are leaders in their industries.

The foundation also awards a $10,000 scholarship to two (one middle school, one high school) girls each year who best demonstrate the ability to lead with courage, grit and grace.

The organization is backed by PBR and brings girls across the country to events. People often ask Stinger what bull riding has to do with preparing young girls for life.

"Bull riding is a metaphor for life. If you think about the sport, those bulls are 2000 pounds, they love what they do, they are competitive. Their job and their desire is to knock the rider off," Stinger said. "The (riders) sometimes get stomped on, get broken jaws but they always get back up and they always fight to get back on."

Stinger wants to teach girls through bull riding that no matter how hard they may get knocked down to always get back up, stand tall and forge ahead. Just as she did, keeping that dream of owning a bull tucked away all those years, even when Black female owners didn't exist.

"If you ever told me I'd own a bull, be on the chutes, be engrained in the PBR family, I would not have even been able to contain myself," she said. "Everything, every obstacle, hardship, the good the bad, prepared me for this moment to pour back in. Hopefully this is my legacy."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ex-Fox 59's Fanchon Stinger: First Black woman to own elite PBR bulls