story by Lindsay Humphrey
You can’t keep a good man down. That’s what members of the KPRA, and anyone who knows him, will say about K Lee Jones from Garden City, Kansas. He’s the guy who didn’t have a strong connection to rodeo when he was a kid but found his way behind the chutes anyways. “My cousin, Skeeter, rode bulls and I watched him at the Little Britches finals one year,” he said. “I decided I wanted to try it. Skeeter had to nod my head for me the first time I got on a bull because I was frozen. I was 8 at the time and I stayed on for about 4 seconds.” The nerves wore off quickly and K Lee was a Little Britches regular right alongside his cousin. “At the time, I needed to place twice to make the Little Britches finals. I didn’t ride a bull all year until I got to Pueblo West, the last one of the year. I rode both of my bulls to win first and second. I think I rode 13 or 14 bulls straight after that.”
Eventually, K Lee grew to be 6-foot-4, but that’s never been a deterrent for him as a competitor. “I’ve been pretty successful for someone my size. I just love it. I guess that’s the reason I can’t walk away from it.” K Lee first got started in 1985, making his career with bulls almost 40 years strong now. Like any other roughie before him, K Lee’s hit a few low spots along the way. “I was in Newton, Kansas, when I got hung up and a bull stepped on my back. I got up, walked out of the arena, passed out and got up again before they called the ambulance.” That was a Friday night in early August and K Lee doesn’t remember waking up until the following Monday. He spent 9 days in the ICU thanks to his injuries. “If I had been in Western Kansas, I probably wouldn’t be here. I was only 15 miles from a major medical center.”
That trip to the hospital in 2011 led K Lee to hang up his bull rope for about four years. He was working for a stock contractor until getting back in the game in 2015. “I’ve been fighting bulls for about the last 10 years. Medicine River Rodeo Company gave me the opportunity to fight, and I’ve been going with them ever since.” Riding bulls was the perfect prerequisite for K Lee to fight them. He certainly doesn’t look like most bull fighters because he’s so tall, but that doesn’t affect him at all. “I can usually tell when someone is in trouble, and I can position myself where I need to be before I need to be there. I’ve been around bulls my whole life and now I raise them, so I can read the animals pretty well. Riding bulls has made me the fighter that I am today.”
While K Lee’s experience in the bull pen is a driver of his success, another factor in that equation is his partner with Medicine River. “In 2020, they hired Trevor Grasser to fight with me and we have gelled. I’m not afraid to do anything because I know if I mess up and get knocked down, he is going to be there.” K Lee’s wife, Ronda McFadden, gives him a hard time because he’s old enough to be Trevor’s dad but they’re the best of friends. “He’s the reason I made the KPRA finals this year. Before Trevor, I was a bit timid in my fighting but with him in the arena I don’t worry about anything and that’s made me a better bull fighter.” K Lee turned 46 last August and he made the difficult decision to announce his retirement during the KPRA finals. However, K Lee is a good man that simply can’t stay down. “I’m still healthy and I’m still pretty good at it. At the finals I threw the best fake of my life, so my ability is still there as a fighter. I’m that cowboy that can’t get away from it, it’s a huge part of my life. Now that we’re a few months after the finals, I’m not so sure I’m actually going to retire.”
