Garth Brooks sets the scene and sums up the events of Saturday better than anyone else could.
"It's the white in his knuckles, the gold in the buckle. He'll win the next go 'round. It's boots and chaps and cowboy hats. It's spurs and latigo. It's the ropes and the reins and the joy and the pain, and they call the thing rodeo."
The 44th annual Alpha Psi rodeo kicked off Saturday with a plethora of boots, plaid and cutoff jean shorts, worn by both women and men alike.
Roughly 10,000 attended, a couple thousand more than last year's attendance.
There were 5,000 presale tickets distributed to local gas stations, which sold out early Friday afternoon.
Gates opened at 8 a.m., as a steady stream of lifted trucks paraded down South College Street toward the muddy field on Sandhill Road.
Bull and bronco riding, steer wrestling, calf roping and tug-of-war were the main rodeo attractions beginning at 10:30 a.m.
Eric Mueller, a member of Alpha Psi, said the riding events are most popular, and the winner won a large western belt buckle.
"The inner redneck in everyone came out," said Nickolette Kennedy, a junior in business. "It was a big costume party."
Later in the night after the bulls and broncos calmed down, the country band Sons of March opened for country star John Anderson.
Mueller, a graduate veterinary medicine student, said he thinks this rodeo was more successful than last year.
"We always want it to be bigger and better," Mueller said.
The majority of profits from the rodeo are donated to Storybook Farm Inc., a program of equine-based therapy serving children with special needs located in Opelika.
"We are Storybook Farm's biggest donator every year," Mueller said.
The rest of the profits Alpha Psi collects from the rodeo are put toward the following year's rodeo and toward the veterinary school's yearly mission trips.
Alpha Psi is a professional fraternity of veterinary students.
"The rodeo was a blast," said Tina McMullen, a junior in international business. "It was a great way to spend a Saturday -- Alabama style -- and at the same time you're helping Alpha Psi's philanthropy."
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