Mark Baird remembers the drive into town back in 1969, when his father’s job as an engineer for U.S. Steel first took the family to Tucson.
They arrived from Salt Lake City, where Baird was a high school freshman with a passion for skiing, and his parents coaxed him into good behavior by telling him, “You’ll like it; there’s a ski area outside of town.”
Mount Lemmon isn’t exactly Deer Valley, though, so Baird took a little while to find himself.
It took until February of the next year, 50 years ago now, when Baird’s younger brother was in the marching band at Amphitheater Junior High School. Baird went downtown to watch the rodeo parade and was hooked.
“That got the cowboy fire burning a little bit,” Baird said. “It’s kind of been there ever since.”
More now than ever now that he’s the chairman of the Tucson Rodeo, with the second and final weekend kicking off with performances from Thursday to Sunday.
“Growing up in my generation, Roy Rogers and ‘The Lone Ranger,’ ‘Bonanza,’ ‘Gunsmoke’ — everybody wanted to be a cowboy,” he said. “I’ve always had a passion for Western lifestyle. I don’t own a pair of regular shoes. Everything is cowboy boots.”
Tucson Rodeo general manager Gary Williams remembers when he first saw that fire burning in Baird.
Baird had already been a volunteer for more than a decade, dating back to 1995, when his role as a Coors distributor brought him back out to the rodeo.
Williams can’t recall the exact year that Baird brought with him a veritable battalion of volunteers from Finley Distributing to help affix the signs and posters all over the grandstands and fences. He just remembers Baird rolling in 15 deep, and continuing the tradition year after year.
“He brings a real good skill set, and he brings a genuine, burning desire to see us do the best we can, and to not leave anything on the table,” Williams said. “He’s all in. He’s been a great chairman thus far, and he will continue to be.”
Baird remembers that first volunteer adventure in 1995, when his boss asked him to head out to the rodeo grounds to help fill the beer troughs.
“I came out here that Friday morning and after three hours figured out it was a good deal and have been here ever since,” he said.
In 2007, he joined the rodeo committee as an associate member and was voted onto the executive board a few years later. After serving as vice chairman under Jose Calderon, Baird decided to take the reins in 2019.
“Jose and I came on the committee the same year, became associates the same year, and when he ran for chairman, he asked me, ‘Will you run as vice chair?’ ” Baird said. “We’ve always taken the attitude — and we’re on the same page here — that we’re here to preserve the event and make sure it’s the best it can be. It’s become a passion to make sure that myself and everyone involved in this never lets it go away.”
Williams said the tag team of Calderon and Baird served the rodeo well.
“Jose really trained him well,” Williams said. “Jose involved him in every single decision he made, just so that when Mark succeeded him, he would have a good background to help him make decisions. That was a very good strategy on Jose’s part.”
Baird — whose daughter, Erica, played first base for the Ironwood Ridge High School state championship-winning softball team in 2019 and now plays at Mesa Community College in Phoenix — calls volunteering for the rodeo “absolutely one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done in my life.”
“This isn’t work, my friend,” he said. “I don’t know another way to explain it other than it is contagious.”
