The City of Houston has been celebrating the launch of rodeo season with the Downtown Rodeo Parade since 1938. Using three cameras set up along the parade route, ABC13 first televised the Rodeo Parade live in 1959, marking the beginning of a long-term relationship between the station and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Channel 13 has been televising the parade every year since.
We went into the ABC13 Vault to find video of the 1959 celebration
ABC13 video from 1959 shows first televised Downtown Rodeo Parade
WATCH: Rodeo Parade rolled through Houston in 1966
1966 Rodeo Parade
ABC13 provided a front-row seat of all the pageantry as the trail riders converged in downtown as the exclusive television partner for the grand event.