In the months prior to that date, Ragsdale tried renting livestock for the rodeo from Reno area farmers and ranchers, but when he admitted the event was being sponsored by the Reno gay community, every farmer and rancher he approached-nearly three dozen of them-refused to rent their animals. Ragsdale approached the Washoe County Fairgrounds manager and the earliest date the facility was available was October 2, 1976.
In 1975, Phil Ragsdale, who was Emperor I of the Silver Dollar Court in Reno, conceived of a gay rodeo as a fundraising effort for the Court.
