CALGARY - A bull that was feared by cowboys around the world is being honoured with a bronze statue to be built in downtown Calgary.
Officials with the Calgary Stampede unveiled Thursday two scale models of Outlaw, the powerful animal that recorded 71 trips out of the chute during its four-year rodeo career but was successfully ridden only once.
Outlaw was the champion bull at the 2002 Canadian Finals Rodeo and at the 2003 Calgary Stampede. It's also the only bull that rang the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange, a moment broadcast via a live video link in July 2004.
A month later, the award-winning bull died and was buried at the Stampede graveyard.
Before the Stampede opens in 2010, a sculpted likeness of the ferocious animal will be installed at the heart of the business section of downtown Calgary, said George Brookman, president and chairman of the board.
"Outlaw has a reputation for being bullish in Calgary and being part of the financial world," he said.
Brookman predicts Outlaw's bronze statue will become another icon for the city.
"Millions and millions of tourists will look at it and touch it and get pictures taken with it," he said.
"It will definitely be an icon for Calgary and symbolic for everything we are ... western spirit and a gentle giant."
Regina sculptor Rich Loffler said he was thrilled to be chosen for the job.
"To have an opportunity like this, to put my work in Calgary, which is cowtown, western, rodeo ... a metropolitan city, for me it's wonderful," said Loffler.
"This is really exciting because I like to sculpt animals, although I do a lot of human portraits."
Calgary Stampede unveils bronze statue of bull that was ridden only once
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