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Robert H. “Bob” Schall Jr.

Robert H. “Bob” Schall Jr.

Robert H. “Bob” Schall Jr., the 1986 Linderman Award winner and a recent inductee into the Montana Hall and Wall of Fame, died March 21 in his hometown of Arlee, Mont., after a two-year battle with colon cancer. He was 63.

Schall was an accomplished bareback rider, team roper, and steer wrestler, winning numerous championships in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, while traveling extensively throughout the United States and Canada.



“I wasn’t a part-time cowboy and I never got road foundered,” he told the Valley Journal (Ronan, Mont.) in an interview in January. “I spent 39 years on the road going to rodeos.

“I loved being in rodeos. It was outstanding. It was a great adrenaline rush. The best part was not knowing what was going to happen next from the time you nodded your head to the few seconds after you hit the ground.”



A graduate of Montana State University in Bozeman, Schall was a member of the 1972 NIRA National Championship Men’s Rodeo Team that was inducted into the MSU Athletic Hall of Fame; he helped the cause by winning the national collegiate bareback riding title that year.

As a professional, he competed in as many as 126 rodeos in a year and was still going to more than 100 – including senior rodeos – well into his 40s. He won the Montana Circuit year-end bareback riding championship in 1992 and the all-around title a year later.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert H. and Marjorie Schall, Sr.; brothers-in-law Norman Crawford, Rip Johnson and Tom O’Connor. He is survived by his daughter Emily; longtime partner Jill Ursua; sisters Marjorie Schall, Betsy Johnson, Judy Myllymaki, Johanna Crawford, and Mary Jane Heindel; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Funeral services were held March 29 in the Arlee High School gym. Foster Funeral Home of St. Ignatius, Mont., was entrusted with the arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame, the University of Great Falls Rodeo Team, the MSU Rodeo Scholarship fund, or the charity of one’s choice. Thoughts and condolences may be shared at http://www.fosterfhandcrematory.com