DOING THE JOB

Phillipsburg, Kan. (July 21, 2025) –When you sit down at the Phillipsburg rodeo, you can thank Cliff VanKooten.

Along with other workers, the Phillipsburg man built and welded the grandstands, the seating above the chutes, and some of the livestock pens at the rodeo arena, replacing the wooden ones.

He grew up on a farm near Long Island, and after high school, joined the US Army for three years, spending time in reconnaissance work and design drafting.

After that, he came back to Kansas and worked for the International Harvester dealer in Phillipsburg as a mechanic.

The trajectory of his life changed one day while taking a transmission out of a truck. He was lying under the vehicle, dirt falling into his eyes, when he said, “I hate this job.”

“The boss was standing there,” he remembered, and he asked VanKooten, what would he rather do?

“I said, I’d like to weld,” he said. So the boss told him to attend welding school, saying, “learn everything you can about it.”

After eight months of vo-tech school, VanKooten came back to Phillipsburg and welded on the side, while continuing to work for the farm machinery dealership.

Two years later, VanKooten had “all the welding I could do,” he said, so he rented a place west of Phillipsburg, and eventually bought it, built a shop, and that’s where his business is today.

One day, Arlen Weinman came out to VanKooten’s shop to sell him a share of the Phillipsburg rodeo for $100.

But VanKooten didn’t have the money, so Weinman said, ‘come back and see me when you have it.’

Little did VanKooten know that the rodeo committee was wanting help in replacing some of the wooden rodeo structures.

A few weeks later, VanKooten had the extra cash, bought a rodeo share, and in 1984, they started rebuilding.

Each summer they’d take a portion of the grandstands and replace them, starting with the seats above the chutes.

“We did section by section,” VanKooten said. He didn’t build or weld the aluminum seating, but he purchased the aluminum and attached the seating. Other rodeo committee members bolted the seating on.

The first couple of years, he did it for free, with the rodeo committee paying for supplies. When the rodeo was more financially stable, he bid the job, bidding low, to benefit the rodeo, knowing an outside company would charge a lot more.

His wife Helen joked she was a “rodeo widow” the years he spent building the grandstands. “We’d work all day,” VanKooten said, “then at 5 pm I’d go out to the rodeo grounds and work till 10 or 11 pm most nights. We were donating our time, and I wasn’t the only one. There was a lot of people working. But if we hadn’t donated our time, we wouldn’t have anything out there.”

VanKooten joined the rodeo committee in 1984 and served till 1990, then again from 1994-1996. He was committee president from 1986-1990.

He not only rebuilt the grandstands, but he worked the concessions stands, ordering the food and lining up help.

The 83-year-old has a strong sense of duty, and he knew the job needed to be done.

“Somebody needed to do it,” he said. But he’s quick to point out that many others helped as well, including Danzey Price, who also welded and worked with VanKooten. “I’m not the only one,” who worked, he said.

He loves the Phillipsburg rodeo.

“I have a lot of pride in it,” he said. “I still have a share, and I probably will until the day I die. I have pride in my work and the rodeo both.”

He attends the rodeo all three nights. “I go out there and look around, and I see it and think, how many hours I spent out there, and I enjoyed it.”

He also welded the words that are framed above the entrance: Kansas Biggest Rodeo. It was the first thing he did after joining the committee.

VanKooten still shows up for work at his welding shop every day, even in his eighth decade. But if the fishing is good, he’ll skip out early or come in late.

He doesn’t volunteer at the rodeo grounds anymore, but he supports the rodeo as a sponsor. “I can’t work anymore, so I support them financially.”

Life has been good, he says. He and Helen have been married for 61 years, and they have two children, Blaine (and his wife Stacee) and Melinda and five grandchildren.

“We’ve had a good life,” he said, “and I’m still a-going.”

The Phillipsburg rodeo is July 31-August 2, with performances starting at 8 p.m. nightly.

Tickets range in price from $13-$22 and are available online at KansasBiggestRodeo.com and at Garrett Insurance (685 Third Street, Phillipsburg) or by calling 785.543.2448.

For more information, visit the website or call 785.543.2448.