Rango the bull suffers sudden death
Rango the bull died Sunday morning. He was 7 years old. The news release said Rango had been admitted to the hospital for intestinal issues and suffered a heart problem while receiving treatment.
It must have been a wild scene in the emergency room.
In lieu of flowers, the pro bull riders in the Built Ford Tough Series probably will send hospital bills.
If you were intrepid enough to climb aboard Rango’s vast rear end, he would either throw you on yours or help you score around 92 points. That’s what you want in a bucking bull, say most of PBR guys, or at least the ones Rango never threw onto their keisters in front of big crowds in places such as Albuquerque and just about anywhere in Oklahoma.
“He was an exhilarating performer and it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to this great bucking bull. He will be sorely missed,” PBR Chairman Jim Haworth said in paying homage to the veteran performer, a fixture at the PBR finals in Las Vegas.
Most of the men who had ridden Rango, which wasn’t many, could not be reached for comment. They were said to still be holding their ribs or rubbing their jaws.
In the manner of James Gandolfini and Heath Ledger and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rango made a movie before he died that will be shown posthumously.
The film adaptation of a book by Nicholas Sparks called “The Longest Ride” will include the once ferocious bucking bull. It’s supposed to hit theaters in April.
Rango’s scene probably will only be a cameo lasting fewer than eight seconds.
