What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 14, 2019 06:07AM
In the late 70s when NTPA had an indoor pull in Denver, Colorado was an up and coming state, especially in the mod class.

Didn't the Big Orange allison win once at either Indy Super Pull or Bowling Green? The Sporhase mod and Carl Schneller were tough wherever they hooked.

Does anyone that was around in the late 70s and 80s have memories of Colorado pulling back in the day? When did the sport start to backslide in that part of the country?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2019 06:07AM by The Original Michael.
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 14, 2019 11:21AM
I always used to enjoy seeing the Colorado pullers at the Kansas State Fair in the mid 1970's to mid 80's...They sure had some good ones like those mentioned and Bill Williams with his JD's...I also used to see some Texas and Oklahoma pullers show up in Kansas...It seems like by the late 80's pulling sort of died in those states...The farm crisis and 18-20% interest sure didn't help things..
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 14, 2019 03:08PM
There were a couple of different issues that almost killed pulling in the region. First was the farm crisis in the 80's. Most of the big names that made their mark in the national scene sold and left the sport. Along with that, the loss of the NTPA pulls in Hildreth, Nebraskas and Greeley, Colorado left us without any local national pull. The next issue that nobody talks about, is the fact that NTPA in the early 90's pushed several minor safety regulations (dated blankets, and the like) that led several of the local state groups to leave(CO, NE, WY/MT). At this point we did not have a single NTPA state group in the region.

With that being said, pulling is alive and growing again. There is probably 30+ pulls in Colorado, Wyoming, and western Nebraska. I still wish we were under the umbrella of a National group for the commonality of rules and quality insurance, but it seems those days are gone.

Greg Lussetto
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 16, 2019 02:37AM
I was born in 1978 and grew up pulling with my dad Tim McGuire attending many Colorado pulls, I was too young to recall what happened to pulling in those days but agree with the comments already made. To answer your question on the best pulls back then I would say Greeley being a regional national hook was a lot of fun as it drew in some of the big names of those days. Also Brighton and Sterling CO were always fun hooks, the stands were always packed. As Greg said pulling is coming back in Northern Colorado, Western Nebraska, and the corner of Wyoming, had the pleasure of attending and participating this summer at a few pulls and there are some great pullers with good running iron. James McGuire
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 16, 2019 02:05PM
Do you have a sanctioning body covering those 30 pulls? If so, there name. They have a website?
What classes are offered?
How many competitors will you usually see per event?
Greg, does your family still pull? If so, in what class with what?
James, I gather you pull now. If so, in what class with what?
Good to hear pulling is picking back up in the central Great Plains.

I know when I did the relatively recent Legends story of Arnold Baker, he had great respect for the Greeley and Hildreth pulls.
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 16, 2019 02:31PM
Dave - Greg and his family own Heartland Pulling. They have their own sled and are a USPA group (same as Outlaw and ITPA).

I also know there is a CO group or two.
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 16, 2019 03:48PM
Dave, I just heard about the article from Jim Puckett yesterday. Miss the "characters" that used to pull in those days.

We have tried to scale back the classes out here to build numbers. In our Heartland group we have a couple of economod classes, prostreet 4x4 truck (about 650hp), Light Limited Super following the new Outlaw rules, Limited Pro Stock diesel truck, 8000 Light Limited Pro tractor (466 cube 3x3 smooth charger) and Nebraska Bush 6200 mod class. While it's still a "work in progress", we are slowly starting to see pullers getting built or bought in the area. We generally have 20-30 units per night in our sanctioned classes along with a decent following of street trucks and farm tractors.

Thanks for the interest,
Greg
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 21, 2019 05:14AM
Dave, great to hear about Arnold Baker we used to pit beside him great guy! Where could I find this article? I pull with a 3020 and A John Deere with a local group in southwest KS we run antique and classic tractors with a few econo mods. I built a hot farm 4020 that I pulled last year and sold to start building a LLSS, this will be put on hold due to the passing of my stepfather Don Bennett, you might remember him pulling Pride Of The Farm on the grand national circuit in 1983. Thanks, James McGuire
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 21, 2019 02:53PM
James, the Gale Powell / Jim Puckett / Arnold Baker / Ken McKillop "Legends" story is the first feature in "the PULLER" magazine, November 2018.

NTPA Office = 614-436- seventeen sixty one. Sarah is the Editor and manages the subscriptions.

Thanks for sharing your current pulling situation. What is the name of the "local group"?

I certainly remember Don Cook's "Pride of the Farm" IH 966 Super Stock (former Joe Kwiatkowski "Wild Thing") and have numerous photos of each. But, no, I have no recollection of Don Bennett with "Pride of the Farm". It is only listed for 2 years on pulling-reference.com Where did the tractor go?

Greg phoned me, having a nice short visit. Unfortunately, I had to cut him short but am looking to resume our mutual visit, likely late this week, once it gets cold again and hopefully I have the next "Legends" story finished.

Good to hear the pulling spark is still at least smoldering in the Great Plains.

James, since you currently pull antiques, do you see Arnold Baker quite often? And compete against his Allis'? I see you are in the opposite lower corner of Kansas from him. Real dryland. Lots of center pivots where you are?
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 22, 2019 02:20AM
Dave, thanks for the info. Our local group is called Western Prairie Tractor Club. You are correct the Pride Of The Farm originated with Joe and Cook, My stepdad bought it from Hypermax, campaigned it on the GN circuit and sold it to LD Nation at the Ft. Worth farm show the following winter, later it was sold to Dennis Goodwin in Iowa. I have not run into Arnold at any pulls but hopefully our paths will cross down the road. I work in Walsh CO, home of the late great Bill Williams and yes there are center pivots here and a lot of dryland, I manage the John Deere store. The attached photo is from Holyoke CO this summer that shows left to right Leon Atkins, Gale Jurgens (late husband Von campaigned "Sneaky Snake" JD lite super), Larry Walters & Jack Karre partners on the original "Super Toy" JD, Julie Sporhase, Carl Schneller and his wife, Don Bennett, the guy on the end worked on Rothe's Turbine and don't recall his name.


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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 22, 2019 02:27AM
First pic is Don Bennett and Steve Blagrave circa 1977 in Tulia TX, second pic is Don in the October 1983 Puller pulling in New York


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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 24, 2019 02:00AM
Leon Atkins, please explain what "they changed the classes" means.

www.pulling-reference.com has you listed from '77 to '81. NTPA classes through all those years and up to '85 were 5, 7, 9 and 12 SS with '86 to '88 dropping the 12 down by weighing now 1000# less (11,200).
Then '89, it was the 75/95 deal for 9 years with the 55SS for 3 of those years.

So it appears to me that weight classes remained the same for several years, to have allowed you to rebuild.
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 22, 2019 01:26AM
Back in the late 1970's when Don Bennett lived at Elkhart,KS he pulled a JD 4430 on alky.....Theres a nice picture of him pulling it in the Nov 1978 Puller....He was pulling at Davenport,Iowa....I got to see him pull "Pride Of The Farm" a couple of times..Sorry to hear of Dons passing..

Leon Atkins was also mentioned down below...He was the White dealer at Haxtun,CO and from 1977-81 pulled a great running G-1000 MM..Theres a picture of it pulling at Hildreth,NE on the front cover of the Oct 1978 Puller..No one seems to know what happened to Leons tractor..
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 22, 2019 12:09PM
I sold cylinder heads when the farm economy went south. At the last pull I went to I put a piston out the crank case . Was going to rebuild it but they changed the classes .
It was going to take a lot of work to comply. Decided I quit. The rest of tractor went to S.D.
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Re: What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 23, 2019 05:53PM
Leon was pulling at Bandimere Speedway made a slight studder off the line and detonated. When you have rods the length of a mans forearm and pistons the size off 3lb coffee cans there is a lot that can go wrong. At one time there was a video of that explosion I know it put a lot of iron on the track, possible Karre has it on tape in their collection.
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Re: Leon Atkins? January 21, 2019 03:31PM
Wasn't there a Leon Atkins who pulled a MM G-1000? I vaguely remember a photo of his tractor at BG in The Puller around 1978 or so. Whatever happened to his tractor?
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Re:What happened to pulling in Colorado? January 24, 2019 02:09PM
James, in my old photo customer card file, I quickly found a Don Bennett card. He bought numerous color photos from one 12SS image at '83 Syracuse - wallet size, 8x10 and 11x14.

And the photo you showed from the Oct. '83 "the PULLER" coverage piqued my curiosity even further. As I searched for any further photos of Don from that event, I found a black and white image of him (on a 1 page film sheet showing each image in that roll of film) - the same exact one in the magazine. Thus, I assume my name is likely associated in that story coverage. But I do not have those b&w negatives as they must have been provided to "the PULLER". However, I do have the original color negative.

Thought you may find this interesting of what I re-discovered about Don. The address was Kearney, Neb.

Thank you for sharing those photos with us and providing a caption. It is good to preserve this pulling history.
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