Jim Bob Altizer
- December 12, 1997
- 65 years
About Jim Bob Altizer
Jim Bob Altizer, 65, American calf and steer roper.
Explore other notable deaths in 1997 or deaths in December 1997.
The Deaths Archive presents
How well do you know Jim Bob Altizer?
Explore their life. Test your knowledge. Beat the challenge.
10 questions · One legacy · How much do you really know?
Challenge your friends
Play together in real-time.
Advertisement
Full Biography
|Jim Bob Altizer (May 5, 1932 – December 12, 1997) was an American professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in calf and steer roping. He competed in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA), and won the RCA calf roping world championship in 1959 and the RCA steer roping world championship in 1967.
Life and career
Jim Bob Altizer was born on May 5, 1932, in Del Rio, Texas, to Olin and Estella Cauthorn Altizer.
He was the Texas state high school calf-roping champion in 1947 and the U.S. national high school calf-roping champion in 1948. He graduated from Del Rio High School, also in 1948. He turned professional in 1950.
He won the calf-roping world championship at the inaugural National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in 1959, and the steer-roping world championship at the National Finals Steer Roping (NFSR) in 1967. He qualified for the NFR as a calf roper ten times and the NFSR six times. He won numerous rodeo titles throughout his career, and retired in 1976.
Throughout his life, Altizer was a Texas border ranchman.
Altizer died on December 12, 1997, in Del Rio, Texas, of cancer, at the age of 65.
His older sister Blanche Altizer Smith was a professional rodeo cowgirl herself, as was his daughter Sherry.
His son Mack was a professional rodeo stock contractor for many years as the owner of Bad Company Rodeo.
Honors
- In 1979, Jim Bob Altizer was one of the inaugural inductees into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame.
- In 1995, he was inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
- He was posthumously inducted into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2003, the Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2004, and the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2009.
Content from Wikipedia — licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Interactive
Test Your Knowledge – Trivia Challenge
How well do you know this person's life and legacy?
No account needed to play. Sign in to keep your score on the leaderboard.
Books & Media
Find books, audiobooks and films about Jim Bob Altizer on Amazon.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Bob_Altizer
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Sep 26, 2026
- View article
- Sep 26, 2026
People who died on December 12
Spotted an error?
Help us keep the archive accurate. Report a correction with a source.
Report an error for Jim Bob Altizer →Advertisement