For 50 years, Pembroke Township has been the home of the annual Pembroke Rodeo.

Each year, hundreds pull on their boots and grab their cowboy hats to attend the two-day Memorial Day weekend tradition started by St. Anne-based Latting Rodeo Productions in 1976.

Cars began to line the gravel country road leading to the rodeo grounds well before the dirt started flying at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

About 120 contestants, many of them part of generational rodeo families from the area, competed across eight events each day this year, said Mike Latting, owner of Latting Rodeo Productions.

Latting, 73, who took over the rodeo business started in 1964 by his father, Thyrl, said the family started the Pembroke Rodeo in 1976 to offer something positive to the community.

“We weren’t like the Michael Jordans or the Walter Paytons… but what we did have was a rodeo company,” Latting said. ”And what we could do was bring something positive to this community.”

A longtime educator and coach with the Pembroke Consolidated Community School District for 28 years, as well as working in Donovan for two years and retiring after 12 years from the Joliet school district as a principal in 2017, Latting shared one of the major reasons he continues the Pembroke Rodeo.

“Because I owe it to Pembroke,” he said. “Pembroke helped me raise my children.”

Latting said when he first arrived to take over his grandfather Maurice’s ranch after graduating college in 1976, it seemed like people wanted to look at Pembroke “like it was the most negative place in the world.”

Latting has a different opinion on that.

“[Pembroke] has graduated some outstanding kids. Kids that have gone on to be very successful,” Latting said. “I don’t think it should matter what a person’s bottom line is, what their income is, to determine their worth. I think if kids are raised right, I think if the kids are given certain opportunities, they can all do well.

“You can make it; you can do and be whatever you want to be, as long as you’re willing to put in the work to make it happen,” Latting said. “That’s the motto that I live by.”

Over the years, Latting said nearly 100 middle and high schoolers have come through the M&M Ranch, named after Mike and his grandfather, to build both their confidence and work ethic.

Work ethic is something that comes naturally to Latting.

After earning a rodeo scholarship to Casper College in Wyoming as only the second Black cowboy to receive it, Latting went on to the University of Southern Colorado in Pueblo, also on a scholarship, where he earned his degree in physical education.

He also earned the International Professional Rodeo Association’s Central Rocky Mountain Regional champion titles in both bareback bronc and bull riding during that time.

Latting said he’s been riding for all of his 73 years of life, having started riding bulls by the age of 12 and likely getting on his first horse while still in diapers with his father, Thyrl, who died in 2013.

Latting still raises horses for rodeos on his ranch, where he and his wife, Nina, raised their three children, sons Chris and Kelley, and daughter Michelle.

Latting said he plans to carry on the tradition of the Pembroke Rodeo and the legacy of Latting Rodeo Productions, which is recognized as the oldest Black rodeo in the North, for as long as he can.

“That’s what I do,” he said.

The Pembroke Rodeo kicks off Latting Rodeo Productions’ full summer schedule, which includes competitions hosted at the Kankakee County Fair on Aug. 1 and the Will County Fair on Aug. 30.

Recently, Latting’s company has partnered with D&D Pro Rodeo Company and owner Garret Miller, out of Williamsport, Indiana. Their full summer schedule can be found on the Latting Rodeo Productions Inc. Facebook page.

Every year, though, Kankakee County can count on the Pembroke Rodeo being on Memorial Day weekend at the rodeo grounds at 12029 E. 5000 S. Road in Pembroke Township.

“This weekend will always remain for Pembroke,” Latting said.