Sul Ross State University is a small West Texas university where rodeo rules, rather than football or basketball. It’s a tiny school but it is unique. It is the place where college rodeo began and where the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association was first formed more than 50 years ago.

It has won 8 national championships in the past 50 years and its alumni include some of the greats of pro rodeo. 20 years ago it was top of its game but for more than a decade it’s languished at the back of the pack. Now a new coach and a fresh, young team hope to put Sul Ross back on top with cowboys recruited from across the US and as far away as Canada.

Cowboy 101 follows the team through one semester, sharing their triumphs and disasters. Hosted by Red Steagall, ‘cowboy poet laureate of Texas’, we see action, spills and a whole lot of fun as the kids from the Sul Ross rodeo team ‘cowboy up’, hoping to prove they’re as good as the best rodeo cowboys in the country.