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The   G R A N D   M A R S H A L
2010 Grand Marshall,  Tucson Rodeo Parade

James “Big Jim” Griffith

The Tucson Rodeo Parade is honored to present,
James “Big Jim” Griffith as its 2010 Grand Marshal.
Teacher, founder, anthropologist, author, story teller, award-winning musician, and folklorist all describe the 2010 Tucson Rodeo Parade Grand Marshal, James “Big Jim” Griffith.
For over four decades Big Jim has studied folkways and religious expression throughout the United States-Mexico border region. Griffith’s work as an academic and public folklorist has been extraordinary and his legacy includes founding the Southwest Folklore Center at the University of Arizona and the annual Tucson Meet Yourself Folk Arts Festival.
Jim Griffith was born in Santa Barbara, California, and came to Tucson in 1955 to attend the University of Arizona. He has considered himself a permanent Tucson resident since 1963. He loves Southern Arizona and has said, “I guess I’ll stay in Tucson as long as it gets worse slower than other places.”
He received all three of his degrees from the University of Arizona, the Ph.D. in cultural anthropology and art history in 1973. From 1979 until his retirement in 1998 he ran the University’s Southwest Folklore Center. He is currently a Research Associate at the Center.
With his wife, Loma, he started Tucson Meet Yourself in 1974. The celebration of Tucson’s ethnic and cultural diversity now draws over 100,000 participants annually.
Although he retired as director of the festival in 1995, he is once again heavily involved in this project. Starting in 1985, he wrote and hosted “Southern Arizona Traditions,” a weekly 3-minute spot on KUAT-TV’s Arizona Illustrated program. For 2 ½ years in the late 1980s he wrote a monthly column on “Local Custom” for the now-defunct City Magazine. He was curator for eleven exhibitions of regional traditional arts, the most recent being “La Cadena Que No Se Corta/The Unbroken Chain: The Traditional Arts of Tucson’s Mexican American Community,” at the University of Arizona Museum of Art in the winter of 1996-7.
Griffith has written seven books on Southern Arizona and Northern Mexico folk arts, traditions and religious art. He has been honored by several literary societies and includes such awards as the 2005 Henry Glassie Award and the 2009 Pima County Library Lifetime Achievement Award. He is currently researching for a book on the religious art of Sonora, and finishing a guide to regional folklore.
Big Jim is also an accomplished and award-winning banjo player. He recorded Dixie Cowboy, a CD collection of bluegrass and folk tunes, and also collected the songs and wrote the liner notes for the CD Heroes and Horses: Corridos of the Arizona-Sonora Borderlands,
Jim Griffith’s professional commitment has always been to try to understand the cultures of this part of the border, and to pass along that understanding, as respectfully and accurately as possible, to the general public. His commitment to the history and culture of the Southwest make Big Jim a natural selection as Grand Marshal.




 

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Over the years a list of distinguished individuals from many walks of life has served as GRAND MARSHALS for our Parade. We thank each of them for their valuable contribution on behalf of a worthwhile tradition.
 

YEAR:                         GRAND MARSHALL: 
                     Click on the Link To Read More About the Person                           
 

      2009.........................       Mayor Robert E. Walkup
      2008.........................       Humberto Lopez
      2007..........................      Richard H. Carmona. M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S
    2006 ....................     Louise Serpa
    2005 ....................     Baxter Black 
    2004 ....................     Mrs. Cele Peterson
    2003 ....................     Larry Mahan
    2002 ....................     Mike Candrea
    2001 ....................     Dolan Ellis
    2000 ....................     Hadley Barrett
    1999 ....................     Sons of the Pioneers
    1998 ....................     Rex Allen, Jr.
    1997 ....................     Don Collier
    1996 ....................     Ben Johnson
    1995 ....................     Charles Sampson
    1994 ....................     Gil Fricker
    1993 ....................     Jim Ronstadt
    1992 ....................     Burt Humphrey
    1991 ....................     Bill West
    1990 ....................     Chuck Henson
    1989 ....................     Jim Click, Jr.
    1988 ....................     Lute Olson
    1987 ....................     Governor Rose Mofford
    1986 ....................     Bill Breck
    1985 ....................     Paul Grimes
    1984 ....................     Mayor Lew Murphy
    1983 ....................     Frank B. Roe
    1982 ....................     Roscoe Christopher
    1981 ....................     Kingston J. Smallhouse
    1980 ....................     Joe Weinzapfel
    1979 ....................     Clinton L. Helbig
    1978 ....................     Roy P. Drachman
    1977 ....................     Joseph O. Niemann
    1976 ....................     Alex G. Jacome
    1975 ....................     Harry V. Chambers
    
    

Each February since 1925, Tucsonans saddle their horses, hitch up their buggies and shine their cowboy boots for the “Celebration of the Cowboys.”

For further Rodeo Information
Call 520-741-2233

or go to tucsonrodeo.com

Tucson Rodeo Parade Committee and Museum
P.O.Box 1788
Tucson  AZ  85702

Contact the Parade Office:
(520) 294-1280
Museum: (520) 294-3636
 

2004 Mrs. Cele Peterson

Cele Peterson is with absolute certainty, one of the most outstanding members of Tucson. She has been a member of the business community for over 70 years and has received several awards for her success. Her undying devotion to countless civic organizations and philanthropic affairs is an inspiration to us all.

 Peterson said she could remember climbing a hill in Bisbee as a child and gazing down to see the Mexican Revolution in progress. She called herself a lifelong Republican,

Larry Mahan entered the Professional Rodeo Circuit in 1963 and in 1965 and 1967 he won two bull riding championships. In 1966 he won his first of five consecutive World Championship All-Around Cowboy titles, competing in all three riding events...bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding. Following a series of injuries in the early 70's, Mahan triumphantly returned in 1973 to win an unprecedented sixth World Champion All-Around Cowboy title, earning him a place in the Guinness Book of World records. Twenty five years later, Mahan still holds this place, reigning as one of the all-time greatest record winners in the history of Rodeo.

 

Mike Candrea 2002

Don Collier 1997

 Ed Echols  1956