[1] Marshall Lee Simmons, the general manager of the prison system, started the rodeo in 1931.
[4] Women participated in the rodeo until 1981, when they were moved from the Goree Unit in Huntsville to the prisons in Gatesville.
[1] The rodeo ended because the state began getting money from the federal government for educational and recreational programs for the inmates.
[2] The state had been suffering from an economic recession, and the Texas Legislature was not willing to spend $500,000 to repair stadium bleachers and other infrastructures.
[citation needed] The rodeo was featured in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy starring John Travolta, Debra Winger, and Scott Glenn.