story by Ruth Nicolaus
2009 labor day annual father-son team roping
Veryl Prokop’s life centered around kids, horses, cattle, and rodeo. The Kadoka, S.D. man, a member of the National Inter-Collegiate Rodeo Association Alumni, taught school for 37 years, started his cow herd when he was 12, competed in and announced rodeos in college and after, and owned a herd of brood mares.
He was born in 1936, and twelve years later, thought he had the best the world offered when he won fifty cents for the calf riding and a dollar for second place in the pony race at a local Fourth of July rodeo.
As a teenager, Veryl roped in the Sunday afternoon roping club, and when his cousin gave him a bull rope, his mother wasn’t pleased. Veryl was drafted into the Army the autumn after high school graduation in 1954. He served two years, and when he came home, began as a student at South Dakota State University. A neighbor helped him build a one-horse trailer onto a Model T frame, and Veryl began college rodeo in the tie-down roping, ribbon roping, bulldogging, and the occasional bull ride. He was president of the SDSU Rodeo Club his junior year, and manager of the college’s rodeo, the Jackrabbit Stampede, his senior year. His senior year, he was commissioned by the university’s president to put the rodeo in the black, or the club would be disbanded. Veryl, with help from his club members, had a permanent arena and lights put in, and produced a successful rodeo.
After graduation in 1961, he ran an artificial insemination business and then began teaching school in the fall of 1962. Since then, he’s taught everything from first grade to college kids. Veryl spent 34 years in the Kadoka School District, but also taught area schools as well. In 1986, he got his master’s degree in agricultural education and began the FFA program at Kadoka.
In 1965, he married a former South Dakota High School Rodeo All-Around hand, Marilyn Knapp. Their goal was to have a herd of 500 mother cows and a band of brood mares, and they accomplished that before Marilyn’s untimely death in 2008.
He and Marilyn had two children, Tammy, and Charlie. Tammy showed horses, and Charlie roped. Charlie and his dad still rope together.
Veryl and Marilyn made sure the rodeo kids at Kadoka and the surrounding communities were taken care of, because when he was young, someone took care of Veryl. “When I was in college, I didn’t hardly have a dime to my name,” he remembers. On weekends, he and his college buddies: Jim Korkow, Kenny Sutton, Junior Bachand and Bill Stearns would go to the Korkow Ranch, where Erv Korkow, Jim’s dad, put them to work but made sure they got paid. “He helped me out,” Veryl remembers. “I said to myself, if I ever get the chance to help kids, I’m going to. I returned the favor.”
Veryl retired from teaching in 1998, and takes care of his own cow herd while helping friends and neighbors. He survived a severe case of stomach cancer in 2007, which ended his riding of green colts.
He and Marilyn bought their home, a ranch one mile north of Kadoka, in 1970, and since then, it’s been a rest stop for weary rodeo travelers. When high school rodeo contestants headed to National Finals on the west coast or in Rapid City, entire rodeo teams would stay at the Prokop place. If someone comes to town and needs a place for their horse to be put up overnight, the local motel owners send them to Veryl’s. “Anybody who’s a cowboy or cowgirl and needs a place to stay, they’re welcome at the ranch here, anytime. They can sleep in their campers, and then come in and have breakfast with us the next morning.”
Rodeo’s been good to Veryl, and he’s appreciative. “I’ve made a lot of friends with rodeo. I was never a world champion, but we have two trophy cases full of trophies and ribbons, Marilyn and the kids’ things. I’ve met some wonderful people.”
