Tragic Accident Claims Lives Of Father And Son Rodeo Stars
on • Updated
The rodeo community is grieving after a horrific car crash claimed the lives of a father and son following a team roping event in Oklahoma.
Jamie Earp, 52, and Tucker Earp, 22, were on their way home from the All-Star Team Roping Finals when the crash occurred.
According to reports, the father and son were traveling in a truck towing a horse trailer when they rear-ended a semi parked on the shoulder of I-44 near Kellyville, Oklahoma, on Thursday (Aug. 6).
Both vehicles burst into flames. Jamie and Tucker did not survive. Their horses were rescued and have returned to the Earp family. The driver of the semi sustained injuries and is expected to survive.
Travis Graves, a longtime friend of the Earp family, paid tribute, telling reporter Kendra Santos, “I’ve known Jamie since I was a little kid. The Earps are great people. When my parents had an indoor arena in Jay, he would come to ropings and practice nights there. When I bought my own place in Jay before I moved to Texas, Jamie was my neighbor … We’re all just super sad, and can’t believe this has happened. Jamie’s been a great guy all my life, and Tucker was a good kid. You just never know. We’re all praying for their family now. Nothing can prepare anyone for something like this.”
Tributes poured in from the rodeo community. The American Rodeo Cowboys Association (ARCA) put it best when they wrote, “Rodeo has always been more than a sport, it’s a family. And when one of us hurts, we all hurt.”
WSR wrote of the pair, “As the Earp family faces the loss of both a husband and father and a 22-year-old son whose life was still unfolding, the rodeo community has begun doing what it so often does in times of tragedy: surrounding one of its own.
Jamie and Tucker Earp will be remembered not simply as two names connected to a highway accident, but as a father and son who shared the rodeo road, a love of team roping and countless miles together pursuing the Western way of life.”
During Thursday night’s All-Star Finals in Guthrie, Oklahoma, two horsemen led two riderless horses around the arena in honor of Jamie and Tucker.
Read more of the many tributes written about Jamie and Tucker Earp below.
