Company Info

The Man Behind The Mask

Written by Spook Adkins

Lone Star Circuit Card Holder & personal friend

Probullstats Message Board:
Due to the nature of this subject and for all of you out there who aren't familiar with the evolution of bull riding headgear, I'd like to give credit where its due. The man behind the vision is Morris Futch. A native of Florida he came to Texas in the late 80's to attend college and ride bulls.

While working toward his business degree at Southwest Texas in San Marcos, Morris rode bulls and became a well respected bull rider on the Texas scene. I've heard several accounts from guys who say they remember Morris spurring rank bulls in the neck.

As many already know Morris's career was cut short due to a severe head injury that threatened his life and left him in need of long term therapy in every aspect of daily life. Everything from his speech to learning how to read had to be reshaped and fine tuned again. Morris not only overcame this challenge, he turned it into one of the inspirations for the eventual development of the BULL TOUGH HEADGEAR. The most significant factor was the lose of his friend Brent Thurman.

Started in a garage in the Heights district of Houston, a very unlikely home for a bull riding revolution, Morris began cutting, fitting and shaping the headgear into what you see today. His passion for the game and compassion for his fellow bull rider kept the ideal alive after many set backs. Many well respected people in the sport have been hesitant to support Morris's vision in fear of liability issues and still that hasn't deterred him. They say some people started from zero and worked their way up, if that's so then Morris started from negative 100 and built on it slowly.

Morris Futch - Bull Tough, Inc.

It would have been easy to just let it slide but that's not what he did. Instead he kept at it, traveling, dealing with the head aches, promoting on the phones trying to get people to believe in his ideal. All while working full time on improving his headgear. No great financial profit was seen, or has been seen, on the development of BULL TOUGH. He's taken on a mission and stuck with it.

For everyone's who ever considered headgear and questioned the price of a BULL TOUGH, as opposed to knock offs, they should be aware of the time, knowledge, care and craftsmanship that goes into the development and marketing of the this specialized bull riding headgear. There's been a enormous amount of attention devoted to research and development for safety reasons.

All this was done by one guy out of his garage, not for money or recognition but simply to save bull riders lives. And that's what he's done. Just ask Mike Lee.

Spook Adkins,

Lone Star Circuit Card Holder & personal friend

Bull Tough is what Bull Tough does.

2.25 lbs. of prevention is worth 2000 lbs. of cure!

The Bull Tough head gear was designed with the cowboy in mind for minimum weight advantage and maximum hoof and horn deflection. Bull Tough should positively aid in the event of an accident. The Bull Tough face guard is comprised of the lightest weight titanium material with a helium arc welded frame for optimum spring back and durability. The Bull Tough face guard should protect the cowboys' head to enhance the safety of bull riding.

The initial thoughts of a Bull Tough head gear developed during my treatment at Warm Springs Rehabilitation Clinics in San Antonio and Gonzales, TX., then continued with cognitive rehabilitation in Tampa, Fl. Brent Thurman was my last and final inspiration for designing a head gear feasible for the sport of bull riding.

The death of my counterpart Brent Thurman at the 1994 National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas was my final inspiration to design a riding head gear that the younger generation could benefit from, given a choice between head protection and no head protection. Some of the letters from grateful cowboys that have been utilizing Bull Tough head gear can be found in the literature section .

The Bull Tough head Gear has saved the lives of a few old cowboys that I am personally grateful are still here. Bull Tough will always be on a mission to seek out those of us who don't know what the next bull is going to do. The bull probably bucks and rides in big trucks, it doesn't really matter , the harder they buck, the better. The guys who are getting on a lot of bulls are raising the odds of some kind of head injury in the future. Bull Tough head gear would like to see every bull rider in the world utilizing head protection.

The sport of Bull Riding rode me to college where I met the right people who helped guide me to the concept of protecting bull riders by means of headgear. I slowly began to meet people that would guide me to this point.

During high school in Florida, we were getting on my Dad’s herd bulls when he was out of town. He would come home and see spur marks on his bulls and we wouldn’t know what happened... “They were fighting under one of the salt licks or something I think,” we would tell him. My younger brother Wayne and myself were going once a week to Arcadia, Fl. to get on 3 or 4 bulls a piece each road trip at Pat Hansel’s place, a prominent PRCA contractor in the 60’s 70’s and early 80’s. Mike “the Smurf” Horton, 1987 Wrangler Bullfighting Champion, who was then a kid from right down the road in Zolfo Springs, would be there to fight bulls for us so we weren’t scared of nothin’. This was the greatest guy and best bull fighter I had seen. I went home to Plant City, Fl. for Christmas, saw Mike, and told him straight up that he should come out west to fight bulls. Next thing I knew he called me at school in Huntsville, TX. and said he had an interview with Neal Gay. Then he was supposed to talk to Mack Altizer with Bad Company Rodeo.

The rest is history. He worked with Mack & Bad Company Rodeo where he would get on bulls backwards with his legs wrapped around the bull’s horns; he was definitely an adrenalin junky. (I never saw him get bucked off!). I saw him get on Mack’s “Party Animal” a short paint bull a bunch of times with a beer in his hand usually for promotion, he could ride and the bull would really buck and spin right in the gate . Mike was a good bull and bronc rider and he got his PRCA card early on in his career. We were really lucky as young bull riders to have Mike fight bulls for us because it would make you think you were bullet proof and you would get on anything. It didn’t matter how snorty, usually every bull we got on at Mr. Hansel’s would hook your pants off, so we grew up not being scared.

I was under the influence of my older brother Carson, and his experience with the PRCA and some tough bull riders. Carson taught me all the correct basics for bull riding and told me about the Texas hands. Naturally I wanted to go West where they rode a lot of bulls and the competition was tough . My goal was go to Texas and ride with the utmost of my ability and win against the best. This was home to a lot of aspiring young bull riders and not far from Crockett, home of renowned nationally acclaimed bull man and cow cutter, Roy Carter. He was a personal friend and hauling partner of my older brother Carson. Roy was rodeoing in the South Eastern Circuit some with Carson and Ken Wilcox, a prominent NFR qualifier in the late 70’s early 80’ from Greenbrier, Arkansas.

I was in Huntsville, TX. for the first day of class at Sam Houston State and made a call to Roy, who I did not know at the time, and scheduled a meeting at his arena in Crockett. Mark Swearingen, a close friend who I met the previous month at the NHSRA Nationals in Douglas, WY was a native of Huntsville and led the way to Roy’s and then on to a bunch of rodeos. This is also where I met long time friends and excellent bull riders Brad Bridgewater and Tiger Barker. We got on 4 or 5 bulls each that day and the ball began rolling in Texas. This became routine. Roy noticed the determination and started allowing me to get on whatever I wanted; I would also have to bring somebody to mount green bulls for him. Riding bulls is like anything else you do. Practice makes perfect...

I came to Texas for the college degree but this came after I followed the advice of my older brother Carson, who had previously graduated from the University of Florida. Carson had made a statement that really stuck with me and that was to show up for class every day and you will pass. “This will show your professors that you have try,” he told me and, “they will help you out when you don’t understand something.” I was in their office a lot trying to figure stuff out. I did not think it at the time, but it was allowing me to form personal relationships with my professors that helped me to make it happen .Passing college is all about taking the right professors that you can relate to, and applying yourself with the brain that God gave you.

I learned a lot from my head injury, about your brain. We all have a very large percentage that is never used because we don’t apply ourselves. I did not apply myself until after my first brain injury and memory lapse. I almost flunked out of college and had to attend South West Texas Junior College to regroup so I could go back to South West Texas State where I had previously transferred to finish a four year degree in six years. Ouch!

Bulls were my livelihood to this point then they almost killed me and my younger brother, Wayne, with a head injury. Brent’s fatality blew me away as I, myself, was still reeling from a brain injury, almost driven to the point to do something. Brent Thurman was my final inspiration to design a protective head gear for bull riders, now using the initials of his name, BT for Bull Tough. I was coming through my RCIA program to become a full member of the Catholic church when Brent’s accident occurred in December ‘94 at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

There is no doubt that I was given divine insight especially for the engineering of these facing guards and I am now a firm believer that everything does happen for a reason. I was in mass yesterday hoping for more insight on the Bull Tough project and for it to move forward by means of success for the Bull Tough bull riders. Once again, the same day at Little Rock, Arkansas, Wiley Petersen came through with his 4th win of the ‘03 season and following the big wins for Chad Lucas at Nampa, Idaho another one of the Bull Tough customer’s. Mike Lee, Dusty Hall, and Reuben Geleynse are more prime examples of God’s work in the PBR.

I was talking with a good friend of mine, Gary Richard, about Bull Tough at the Del Rio Super Bull. He had bought a head gear years before but had stopped wearing it. Gary was hesitant Saturday night to say much about it but you could tell he was thinking. I saw him behind the chutes Sunday when I was giving Luke Snyder a tug (87.5pts), and Gary was real excited as his first words when I saw him were, “Hey Morris, get me one of those head gears, man. I have been praying about it. I want one for next weekend.” I told him “Good deal, you know I will take care of you on that.” That was a great experience. The best was when Gary won my benefit bull riding in 1993. “That is why I am making the Bull Tough to help out my old friends,” I said.

All of my friends had rallied behind me when I was in Cognitive Rehabilitation in Tampa, Florida to show up for my benefit bull riding and social gathering in Seguin, Texas that I flew out for. A friend of mine organized the event. As a matter of a fact he organized two benefits for me. Bill Watson and Mark Longoria were put in a position to help and they did. Terry Holland the designer of Mighty Bucky/Broncy has been very instrumental in gaining Bull Tough the right exposure through booth space at the NHSRA Finals, the NFR a few times, and the PBR Finals in Vegas.

I can’t say enough about the help I received from my investors, with this web site and from my sales reps who have helped me get this grass roots effort off the ground. They all have invested their time and money to help Bull Tough free of charge by advertising and for that I will forever be thankful. I have got to say thanks to my legal and professional help, Mr. Bob Curfiss, Attorney at Law and to Robert Fumagalli, CPA, my cowboy counterparts: Wade Leslie/100pt ride, Gary Lefew, Cody Jesse, and Shane Gordon for taking care of Bull Tough on the West Coast, Chad Nachman for pulling me through when times were really bad making a lot of sales in Arizona. Thanks to Laddan Ledbetter, or (spur magic) as David Jennings said, with all those West Texas rider sales. Barstow Pro Rodeo Equipment for the invaluable referrals, Brad Scott, manufacturer of Bull Armour protective vests in Australia who has taken it upon himself to have an Australian national standard set for head protection and making Bull Tough the premier name in head protection down under, Wiley Petersen who has been an outstanding spokesperson on the PBR level making quality sales, Mike Lee has lead by example and turned a lot of guys on. Thanks to Mike’s Mom who is a journalist at the Quarter Horse News Journal for helping me to keep things going with positive input and her writing capabilities. I thank the PBR for allowing me exposure of my T.M. . . . Dr. Mark Brandenberg, the brain trauma specialist who has given me great medical insight and Dr.Tandy Freeman (Professional Bull Riders sports medicine doctor) for believing in the Bull Tough, PBR journalist Chris McManes for the premier Bull Tough feature article in Pro Bull Rider and Boyd Polhamus, National Finals Rodeo announcer extraordinaire for the voice over on my promotional video. I would be here ‘till tomorrow trying to name all my friends that have helped the Bull Tough effort survive.

Thanks guys!

Sincerely,

Morris Futch

Morris Futch

Bull Tough, Inc

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