Hall of Fame inductee Ote Berry came from humble, ranch-raised roots out of the Badlands of rural South Dakota. Ote’s birth certificate says Scott Berry, however, everyone in rodeo knows him as Ote. His sister game him the nickname of Ote as a toddler because she thought he walked like a television comic character names Otis.
Ote Berry will go down in rodeo history as one of the greatest steer wrestlers of all time based on his many accomplishments in the arena. He is a humble champion of character who lives an honest life by the cowboy code and always goes out of his way to help others.

Ote started his career young entering his first bulldogging competition at age six. In 1980, he won the National High School Rodeo Association’s steer wrestling title in Yakima, Washinton. He joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in 1982, and ironic to what would become an iconic career did not win a dime on his rookie card. But his unwavering work ethic would not let him quit. In the winter of his sophomore season in 1983, Berry placed at Rapid City. It was the first time he ever threw a steer in 3. He caught rides, and literally hitchhiked to rodeos like Fort Worth. At one low point that sophomore season, he was on the brink of going home to work in the Nebraska hayfields for family friend Buck Buckles. Ote did go home broke again after the Fourth of July run that year, and the roller coaster was coming to an end when Berry had to borrow $1,500 from First National Bank in Gordon, Neb., to get to Cheyenne that summer. He had one last hurrah—The Daddy of ’em All.

Berry considers his first win at Cheyenne the pivotal turning point in his career. At 20-years-old he won $10,945.86 at The Daddy that July, and it was life-changing money that kept him out of the Nebraska hay fields for good and allowed him to focus on his dream of rodeoing for a living.

“When I went to Cheyenne in 1983, I had two blue shirts, and those were the only two shirts I had to my name,” remembers Berry, who’s an inductee in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City and many more. “I’d wear one of them for two or three days while I was washing the other one. The first thing I did when I won Cheyenne that first time was go to the Western store and buy some new clothes. I finally had some money in my pocket. Winning Cheyenne turned everything around for me. It helped me break through and gave me the confidence I needed. Cheyenne’s one of the biggest, most prestigious rodeos of the year, and from that moment on I knew that I was going to make it as a rodeo cowboy and that I could bulldog with the best. There was no more thinking about going home and going back to work.”

Berry’s track record at Cheyenne reflects the respect and love he’s always had for The Daddy of ‘Em All. He won or placed in the average 10 times in his career. Berry won it all at Cheyenne Frontier Days twice, in both 1983 (he won the second round and short round en route to the average crown that year) and 1991. At Cheyenne Frontier Days in other years he entered, he was second in the average in 1985, third in the average in 1987, 1989, 1995 and 2000, fourth in the average in 1986 and 1999, and split seventh in the average in 1984. Including go-round checks, his career earnings at Cheyenne are approximately $100,000.

“Cheyenne’s my favorite regular-season rodeo by far,” said Berry, who won four world championships in his storied career. “The fresh cattle, the 30-foot score. It’s unique. That’s why they call it The Daddy. You have to be a good cowboy and a good horseman to win there, and being ranch-raised and knowing how to read cattle comes in handy at Cheyenne. There’s a reason it’s known as a cowboy rodeo. And that’s part of what makes a cowboy so proud to win it.”

Ote qualified for 14 National Finals Rodeos in his legendary career, and won the prestigious 10-head NFR average at his first competition in 1985. Always known as a clutch competitor, Ote won 20 NFR go-rounds in his career. He also won other countless Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeos, including Reno; Salinas; Denver; San Antonio; Calgary; Houston; and Fort Worth.

In 2006, Ote retired from full-time rodeo competition, but he has continued to mentor the next generation of steer wrestling greats. Since hanging up his bulldogging spurs, Ote has continued to haul horses and cowboy young guns, and haze for them. Ote has also hazed for a number of steer wrestlers at the NFR over the years, most recently in 2014.

He has been a great ambassador for this sport from the beginning. When called upon in 2014 and 2015, he got back in shape, competed and made a great showing as the Legend in his event at the first two American rodeos in Dallas. Ote always makes time for rodeo fans young and old, and he never forgets where he came from. The youngest of six kids in his family, Ote had humble beginnings that started in the rural ranch of the South Dakota Badlands. He rode a horse to school and worked on the ranch alongside his family.

Ote’s generosity is almost as legendary as his bulldogging, whether it’s helping a fellow cowboy or unselfish acts, such as donating the check he won at the 1995 89er Days Rodeo in Guthrie, OK, the week of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City to the victims and their families.

“When it’s all said and done, I’d like to be remembered not only as a good cowboy, but as a good person,” Ote said. “I’ve had a great career and a great life, and that’s because of all the great people I’ve met along the way.” Ote is in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, as well as several other prestigious Halls of Fame.