The originator of rodeo steer wrestling, or bulldogging, Bill
Pickett is believed to have been born December 5, 1870, in
Travis County, Texas, about thirty miles north of Austin. He was
one of thirteen children of Thomas Jefferson Pickett and Mary
Virginia Elizabeth Gilbert Pickett. After acquiring a fifth-
grade education, Bill Pickett went to work on a ranch. He soon
learned to "bulldog" a steer by grasping it by the horns,
twisting its neck, biting its nose or its upper lip, and making
it fall on its side; this biting technique he had learned by
observing how herder dogs controlled steers. Soon he and his
four brothers (B. W., J. J., C. H., and B. F.), established
their own horse breaking business in Taylor, Texas. Pickett
Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders advertised "catching
and taming wild cattle a speciality." Bill Pickett entered his
first rodeo in 1888 at the fair in Taylor. By the early 1900s he
was a popular rodeo performer. In 1905 Pickett joined the Miller
Brothers 101 Ranch and Wild West s