When respected rodeo announcer Phil Gardenhire died in an Oklahoma automobile accident on April 14, 1999, the shock reverberated throughout the professional rodeo world.

The shock came to Ellensburg where Gardenhire had served as announcer since 1985.

"It was a big, big loss for all of us," said Joel Smith, a member of the Ellensburg Rodeo Board and the Ellensburg Hall of Fame Board. "Phil was a very important part of the growth and direction of our rodeo, and we miss him."

Phil Gardenhire will be posthumously inducted into the Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame at a 6 p.m. banquet on Aug. 28 at Central Washington University's Sue Lombard Hall.

Born in Poteau, in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma, on Sept. 29, 1952, Phillip Duane Gardenhire spent his youth in California and Oklahoma. He graduated from Poteau's Howe High School in 1970 and served in the U.S. Army from 1970 through 1973. He married Kay Deere in 1971, and their son Tyler was born in 1985.

Gardenhire studied at Northeastern Oklahoma State University in Tahlequah and worked as a radio disc jockey before beginning his life on the rodeo road.

Gardenhire had been introduced to rodeo through his bull-riding brother, a job working as a horse groom and his own stint as a bronc rider in contests sponsored by the International Professional Rodeo Association.

Seeking a career in rodeo, Gardenhire tapped into the public speaking and promotional skills he had learned as a country music disc jockey.

Asked to announce a rodeo near his hometown in Heavener, Okla., Gardenhire's aptitude for the rodeo announcer's game was readily apparent.

In 1984, he joined the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association as an announcer. One year later he came to Ellensburg and, simultaneously, was asked to announce the National Finals Rodeo. It was a very promising start for a "rookie" announcer.

In a ProRodeo Sports News interview, Winston Bruce, world champion bronc rider and stock contractor well known to Ellensburg fans, remembered Gardenhire "dedicated his life to the business."

"He was very particular about language and he knew how to handle the clowns," Bruce said.

"Many times today we all get busy and overlook the details. Not Phil. He was always first class and he always did his homework. He liked for everything to go well."

Early in his career, Gardenhire reintroduced the "mounted announcer" persona to professional rodeo, working astride his handsome paint horse. In Ellensburg, however, Gardenhire always announced from high atop the arena in the announcer's booth, in accordance with a long-standing tradition.

Gardenhire also pioneered the practice of interviewing cowboys during the show, seated astride his horse with microphone in hand.

"Phil could read an audience and was able to communicate with them very well," Bruce recalled.

Gardenhire announced the Ellensburg Rodeo from 1985 through 1998, the second longest stint in the "crow's nest" in Ellensburg Rodeo history.

"Phil Gardenhire was all class, a man of great dignity, style, professionalism," recalled Smith. "Phil was very innovative and brought great energy to our arena and its rodeo fans. Phil started traditions again in Ellensburg."

Those traditions had been waning after the 1972 retirement of respected Ellensburg Rodeo announcer George Prescott, a 1997 Ellensburg Rodeo Hall of Fame inductee.

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Prescott was followed by a number of announcers, none of whom quite filled his shoes.

Rodeo Board member Allen Faltus was instrumental in hiring Gardenhire in 1985, at the very beginning of Gardenhire's PRCA career. Faltus considered Gardenhire a potential standout in the rodeo profession and he was right.

In retrospect, it is now clear Gardenhire brought stability and professionalism to the Ellensburg Rodeo, at last filling the void created after Prescott's tenure.

Alongside his Ellensburg duties, Phil Gardenhire announced a host of prime North American rodeo venues from 1984 to 1999. He announced the National Finals Rodeo in 1985, 1987 through 1989, and in 1993. And he announced the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, National High School Rodeo Finals, Professional Women's Rodeo Association Finals and PRCA rodeos in Dodge City, Fort Smith and Colorado Springs.

In addition, he announced at the Pendleton Roundup and the Calgary Stampede.

Gardenhire also was a community volunteer, devoted family man and a devout Christian. He was a deacon and lay minister for his Baptist church and a PRCA rodeo minister.

When Gardenhire's life ended unexpectedly in 1999, 500 mourners attended his Heavener, Okla., funeral and memorial service.