Owned by rodeo champion Jim Shoulders, Tornado was named the "meanest bull alive" at the NFR four times.

Tornado is best known for his matchup with ProRodeo Hall of Fame bull rider, Freckles Brown, which is most often referred to as "The Ride."

[1][2] According to Frank Boggs, an Oklahoman sports writer and columnist, Shoulders bought Tornado in South Texas when the bull was three years old.

[3][4] Tornado was a Brahma-Hereford crossbred bull, known as a Braford that generally weighed 1,850 pounds.

[2] From Tornado's first rodeo in Mesquite, Texas, in 1960 through to the NFR in December 1967, he was undefeated, bucking off the toughest cowboys.

There was a sign outside his pen at Shoulder's ranch in Henryetta: "Warning: Enter at Your Own Risk."

Another hall of fame bull, Red Rock was known for using this strategy, and he was undefeated for his entire PRCA career of 309 attempts.

Cowboy songwriter and singer Red Steagall captured "The Ride" in his song[6] "The Ballad of Freckles Brown.

He was rodeo’s orneriest critter, a massive assembly of muscles and guts and powerful old bones.

"[9] Rodeo photographer Ferrell Butler, explained "If you didn’t get out of there, he’d camp onto you something fierce.

[4] Halfway through his bucking career, in 1965, Shoulders put Tornado up for a $500 prize to anyone who could ride him at the 101 Wild West Ranch Rodeo.

[12] However, his odds of success were considered to be slim: he was older than the typical cowboy and had gotten surgery on his neck.

"Tornado had such a reputation that most cowboys were thrown before they even got on him," says former state senator and Oklahoma Congressman Clem McSpadden, general manager of the NFR that year.

[14] "Radio icon Paul Harvey regaled a national audience for several minutes with details of Freckles Brown's historic ride on the fearsome Tornado.

[6] Tornado was retired after the end of the 1968 rodeo season,[15] to Shoulders' J Lazy S Ranch in Oklahoma.

[2] Shoulders stated that "He enjoyed his prestigious position at the ranch and made it a point to attract attention when strangers were around by bellowing and throwing dirt – almost as though he wanted all to know he was still a champion".

She claimed Tornado was "docile and gentle" in the pasture, and still and relaxed in the chute until it was go time.

[2] Apparently 18 acres at the museum are set aside for burial memorials of notable rodeo animals.