A 1970 graduate of Broken Bow High School, Paul Tierney was named the 2024 Distinguished Alumni recipient during this past weekend’s alumni festivities. Tierney served as the guest speaker at the All-Alumni Luncheon on Saturday (July 13) at the One Box Convention Center.
After graduating from Broken Bow, Tierney attended the National College of Business in Rapid City, SD, receiving his degree in Agri-Business in 1975. While at Broken Bow, Tierney competed in wrestling, football, and track while also achieving national champion status in all around and calf roping in 1970. In college, he competed in six rodeo events and won ten regional titles.
Tierney’s professional rodeo career began in 1977, a rookie year that saw him break into the PRCA top rankings and taking second in the all-around behind Tom Ferguson in 1977. Three years later, he captured the all-around World Championship, ending Ferguson’s six year reign with the title. Tierney was the sport’s second man to earn more than $100,000 in a single year. In horsemanship, he achieved numerous titles including World Championship calf roper in 1979, World Champion cinch timed event four times, South Dakota All-Around Champion in 1980, and was one of the top ten all-around cowboys seven times. Tierney qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in calf roping nine times and in steer wrestling five times.
Recognized nationally for his skill, Tierney was inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame (1980), South Dakota Hall of Fame (1981), Nebraska High School Hall of Fame (1998), the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame (2008), and the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame (2022). In 2014, he was inducted into the Broken Bow Athletic Hall of Fame.
Since retiring from the sport in the mid 1980s, Tierney has continued to work and serve others involved in horsemanship. With his family near the Black Hills of South Dakota, he instilled in his four children both a love of the sport and an appreciation for great horses. He and wife Robin began their own tradition of raising and training talented American Quarter Horses on their family ranch near Oral, South Dakota, and specifically raise their horses with the intention of making great rodeo and ranch horses. Paul and Robin were recognized with the South Dakota Quarter Horse Association Legacy award in 2022.
Paul and Robin now raise and train quarter horses with their children through their family business, Paul Tierney Performance Horses. In addition to running an award-winning business, Tierney is recognized as a generous volunteer and mentor for young people involved in rodeo. For more than 35 years, he has shared his knowledge through conducting roping clinics, providing private lessons and mentoring young competitors. He teaches more than 80 students a year to rope, instilling both the skills they will need on horseback and the character they will need in life.
