Tyler Kijac attempts to rope in a bull in a warm-up session prior to Monday night’s rodeo at the St. Joseph County Grange Fair in Centreville.
By Robert Tomlinson
News Director
CENTREVILLE — Those who attended Monday’s TK Pro Rodeo at the St. Joseph County Grange Fair in Centreville got a full-fledged rodeo experience with all the bells and whistles right in their own backyard.
But what they may not know was that the production was owned by someone from their own backyard as well, coming to the St. Joseph County area for the first time with his rodeo company.
Tyler Kijac, a Union City native who now lives in Oklahoma, founded TK Pro Rodeo back in 2014. The rodeo features a lot of what people expect to see in a rodeo show, including bronco riding, steer wrestling, calf roping, team roping, barrel racing, bull riding, and bull fighting, all in a two-hour window.
“I call it the spills, chills, and thrills of professional rodeo,” Kijac said. “It’s something you can’t see on every corner. You’re not going to see professional rodeos at every county fair you go to. It’s a glimpse into the western lifestyle.”
In 2018, TK Pro Rodeo was named by the rodeo contestants of the American Cowboys Rodeo Association as the “Best Rodeo of the Year.” It has also appeared this year at the Branch County Fair and the Calhoun County and Hillsdale County Fairgrounds. He said he wanted to start the rodeo company because of his passion for what he calls a “real patriotic, American sport.”
“I wouldn’t say that I ever dreamed – I don’t know that everybody’s ever dreamed of having a normal day job, but I just wanted to start something I love to do,” Kijac said. “They say if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, and I feel like I’ve done that. I love what I do.”
That love of rodeo for Kijac, who just recently turned 30, started from an early age. He grew up in Union City, where his father was a professional rodeo cowboy doing team roping. The first rodeo show Kijac ever went to, coincidentally, was at the St. Joseph County Grange Fair in Centreville at the ripe age of 3 days old.
“I didn’t have any option, because I was toted around to these things as a kid, and I grew up, and this is just what I’ve lived on,” Kijac said.
Growing up, Kijac also was a 4-H kid, showing at multiple county fairs, and started doing rodeo at 3 years old with sheep riding. On Monday, he spoke to the 4-H kids to give them encouragement on their journey, and invited them to come to the rodeo that evening.
His rodeo career blossomed from his sheep riding, steer riding and junior bull days, eventually having a career on the PBR Velocity Tour and the International Professional Rodeo Association, where he was a four-time qualifier for the International Finals Rodeo. Kijac is still the only person in the history of the international finals, which featured the 15 best riders and bulls, to have ridden his own bull in the competition as a contestant and a stock contractor.
He started getting national attention in 2021 when he competed on the second season of the INSP show “Ultimate Cowboy Showdown,” hosted by country music singer Trace Adkins. While he didn’t win in that season, he was invited back for an All-Star season of the show which aired last September, and won the $50,000 prize.
“It was the most challenging competition I’ve ever endured in my life. I had a career as a pro bull rider, and this topped it, I’d say,” Kijac said. “It was humbling to win the championship, to know that I was up against tough competition.”
His time on “Ultimate Cowboy Showdown” was also parlayed into the realm of Hollywood, as TK Pro Rodeo was used for the rodeo scene in the hit film “Twisters,” which came out in theaters earlier this year.
“Universal Studios contacted us right after my TV debut with Ultimate Cowboy Showdown, right around that time period. My name was kind of hot in the Hollywood scene, and they needed a rodeo scene, so I guess two and two got brought up and they asked if I was interested in doing it,” Kijac said. Filming of the rodeo scenes occurred in Oklahoma City over an eight-day period, with staging and setup taking place over the course of a month.
Going back to the rodeo, Kijac said his main goal is to have quality entertainment for all ages while giving people a glimpse into the “western heritage” rodeo delivers.
“When someone buys a ticket to my rodeo, they leave and say, ‘I can’t believe they only charged me $15 to watch that rodeo,’” Kijac said. “I want to entertain all kinds of people and demographics and age groups. I feel now is more important than ever. We’ve got two hours to give people a glimpse into our life and western heritage. If we’re not going to become a dying breed, we’ve got to spark some interest in some of these kids and this next generation to want to grow up and be a cowboy.”
Performing in Centreville, where Kijac’s love for rodeo began, is a bit of a surreal moment for him.
“It feels like it’s come full circle. Sometimes this stuff doesn’t hit me until I’m lying in bed at 1 in the morning, and I just think about how fortunate I really am for everything to come together like that, and how lucky I really am. It’s hard to put into words,” Kijac said. “It feels like my hometown. I know it ain’t, but it feels like my hometown.”
Robert Tomlinson can be reached at 279-7488 or robert@wilcoxnewspapers.com.
