Published: September 09, 2007 03:33 pm         

Talker of the town

Doug Mathis of Cleburne rides western trails as one of rodeo’s top announcers

Kelly Clarkson. Randy Rogers. Stacy Sykora. z They are a few who are famous for their trade and have roots in Johnson County. Another name should be added to that list — Doug Mathis, who was born and raised in Cleburne. What makes Mathis, 46, a professional rodeo announcer, significant is that he’s one of the best at what he does. He is ranked as one of the top announcers in the country. He was ranked seventh for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s Announcer of the Year award in 2005. “I don’t think he even has a clue of how talented he is,” said Bob Tallman, PRCA announcer and friend of Mathis. “I’ve known him for a long time, and if he had a fan club, I’d be the head of it.

“I totally believe in his honesty and nature about his delivery on what he does for everybody every day, no matter how big or small the rodeo. I regard him as a friend much more than I would an associate.”

At Cleburne High School Mathis competed in nearly every sport, including rodeo. His mother did not know he was riding for a while.

“I had been sick, and I had been in the hospital,” said Lynda Lain, Mathis’ mother. “I think he just [rode bulls] because some of the guys talked him into it, and he liked it.

“I went to see him a few times, but I just couldn’t stand it when they started getting hurt. Every time he’d go off, I’d pray about it. He enjoyed it very much.”

Mathis has been a member of the PRCA since 1995. He has announced many rodeos, including the 2005 Dodge National Circuit Finals, 2005 Prairie Circuit Finals and 2002 and 2004 Mountain States Circuit Finals.

“He’s multi-talented,” Tallman said. “He’s a sound expert, music expert and a very good rodeo announcer. I’m hoping the day will come that I get to work with him more.”

He started out as a bull rider.

“I rode bulls for a long time,” Mathis said, “and I went to Tarleton State University where I rode bulls on the college team.”

Mathis also served as a bull riding director in college. But he suffered injuries, including multiple injuries to both knee caps and decided he should quit riding.

“I was pretty young at the time and decided I better wait after the doctors said it wouldn’t be a good thing to get hurt again,” Mathis said. “I just quit. I’d rather walk than walk with a cane, so I quit.”

After bouncing around a few other jobs, Tallman asked him about the direction for his life after riding.

“I did a lot of other jobs and just rambled around,” Mathis said. “Bob grabbed me, and he’s the one who came up and asked what I was going to do now that I’m not riding. I had worked at George’s Creek Ranch for a while, so I said I guessed I would go back to working there.”

Tallman saw the knowledge Mathis had of rodeo, however, and pushed him in another direction.

“He’s a fan of the sport and a fan of the industry,” Tallman said. “He’s very knowledgeable about it.”

Tallman urged him to try rodeo

“He told me, ‘You’ve got the voice and knowledge. You need to pick up a mike and take a chance,’ Mathis said. “I started listening, and I learned how to announce standing up against the wall at Fort Worth Stockyards listening to Bob. I thought, ‘I can do this.’”



Mighty mentors

Perhaps that’s what helped Mathis become one of the best — learning from one of the best. Tallman is an eight-time winner of the PRCA Announcer of the Year Award and holds the title again this year. Also a Texas native, Tallman is known as the voice of professional rodeo. He has called the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo 20 times.

“All of my credits that I have earned are not as important to me in my life,” Tallman said. “When you learn to give everything to that Lord ... that has a lot to do with your longevity in life and business.

“I don’t perform for those who pay me. I don’t perform for those who watch me. I perform for the Lord. You got to learn to let go and let God, and you breathe easier. Once you learn to share your earnings, you’ll receive more. That’s my next expansion for [Doug]. I think he is learning how to have a stronger faith.”

Mathis’ mother found announcing to be a much better profession for him.

“I love him doing that much more,” Lain said. “I’m very proud of him. A lot of people don’t realize all you have to remember and all the statistics he has to remember to talk about all the boys riding. I think this is a very good profession and much better than riding.”

Mathis called Tallman one day to let him know he wanted to try announcing. Tallman called him back in an hour and told him, “You’re doing your first rodeo tomorrow in Lubbock.”

From that very first rodeo in the 1990s, where he was paid $50 for three days of announcing, Mathis knew he loved it.

“I walked into the announcer’s stand as scared as I could ever be,” he said. “I got through it, and I walked out of the announcer’s stand at 3 or 4 the next morning. That was the first rodeo I announced.”

He prefers to announce from horseback with a wireless microphone on his head, rather than sitting in the box.

“After Bob [announced on horseback] for the college national finals one year ... people kept asking me if I would do it,” Mathis said.

He’s done so successfully in over 23 states. He averages 50,000 miles a year traveling to and from events all over the nation.

He learned what he knows about cattle, cowboys and ranching from his grandfather, the late James Erwin Parker of Cleburne.

“He was my hero,” Mathis said.

Mathis points out the tough side of announcing as well.

“When you’re on the road like this, it’s a big deal in every town you go to,” he said. “When you step out of the trailer, it’s like you’ve got to be on all the time. You do that every week, and it’s like you’re at your own state all the time. You’ve got TV and radio shows to do, commercials to cut, and that’s just the stuff during the day. Then you’ve got the rodeo at night.”

He’s done well despite the stress of his chosen career path.

“In our business we work for a new client, a new venue, a new area every week, criss-crossing the nation, no matter how big or small the rodeo,” Tallman said. “You’ve got to please a rodeo producer, please a committee, please a group of people in the audience. When it’s all said and done, if you’re tired and your mind’s whipped, you’ve done a great day.

“We’ve got to give as good deliverance on the first as the 22nd. In our business the very last thing you say might be the most important thing you say. He’s learned how to accomplish that, and he is finally learning how to make himself happy. “

“When you’re happy what you’re doing you’ll be happy,” he said.



Man of many (Resistol) hats

Besides announcing, Mathis also endorses Wrangler shirts and jeans and Resistol hats.

He has had several television and movie appearances. He served as a television commentator for the Greely, Colo., Independence Day Stampede Bullriding in 2005 and 2006. He can be seen on television commercials for Reliant Energy, Tylenol and Esquire Watches. He also appeared in the television pilot of “Knockoffs.”

Perhaps his most famous appearance, however, was when he appeared in the 1990 movie “Pure Country” with George Strait.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “George Strait is a great guy. He’s really shy, and rightfully so, I guess. It was mayhem when he came through the crowd.”

Mathis said that the country music star had to stay in his bus most of the time to avoid the crowds.

“I wouldn’t want his life, that’s for sure, not on the road,” he said. “We hadn’t even started shooting yet and people were reaching for him and grabbing for him.”

In movie scenes where people are reaching and grabbing for him, that is exactly what happens to Strait in real life, Mathis said.

Though he’s on the road often, he still calls Cleburne home. When he is in Cleburne, he enjoys spending time at his family ranch with his mother, stepfather and grandmother.

“He’s a very kind and considerate man,” Lain said. “He’s very thoughtful, and he always has been. He’s got a soft heart. He loves the outdoors and the country.”

That country is where he spends his time when he’s at home.

“If I was home right now, I’d be hauling hay,” Mathis said. “If it’s winter, I’m pretty hard to find. I’m usually on top of a mountain with sticks on my feet skiing.”

He is not married, but his mother, stepfather, grandmother, a rodeo clown and the clown’s wife and their 10 dogs live on the ranch.

It’s not that often Mathis makes it home.

“I’m on the road 49 weeks a year,” he said. “I leave in May and don’t cross the Texas line again until September.”

When he does make it home, Mathis likes to “hide out” for about a week and recuperate before doing anything else.

“You hear about entertainers and stuff,” he said. “When they get off the road they don’t do anything but set themselves up in the house for a week or so. I can understand why now.

“When I get home off the road, I don’t answer the phone. I don’t go outside. I don’t do anything for about a week. I go to Wal-Mart late at night and kind of sneak around for a while.”

When he finds free time he also likes to sing. He used to be in a band and enjoys singing with Dale “Gizmo” McCracken, a rodeo clown friend.

“We’ll sing together and pull up a pretty good crowd,” he said. “I think I’ve got the greatest job in the world. It feels like a vacation every day.”

Mathis pulls a crowd to everything he does, whether it’s rodeo announcing, television commercials or autograph signings — using his talents.

“I think for a long time Doug may have thought of himself being a rodeo announcer as a job, but then he found he has a gift,” Tallman said. “He learned how to do it and finally learned how to relax. Now he’s great at what he does.”

     

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