With family that has been involved in farming, ranching and raising horses for more than a century, it is no surprise that AQHA Past President Brad Tate of Lakin, Kansas, has the same interests.
Tate was born on a ranch south of Syracuse, Kansas, in 1934, but has lived in or near Lakin since he was four. His roots are deep there – one of his grandfathers, Alonzo Boylan, came there in 1874 as the town’s first railroad agent. Another grandfather, George H. Tate, Sr., arrived in 1885 and opened the first general store. Both grandfathers were also involved in ranching.
Tate rodeoed through high school, and while pursuing a degree in animal husbandry at Colorado State University, was a member of the national champion rodeo team, winning the regional championship in tie-down roping and was the runner up in steer wrestling.
In 1961, he and his father bought and stood the Three Bars (TB) son Bar Caro, and later a stakes-placed son of Top Deck (TB) named Glory Be Good. A few horses that Tate ran in the 1980s were Nu Gnu, a stakes-winning mare; Fast And Racy, who won two futurities and was undefeated as a 2-year-old; Queen Of Vail, a stakes winner of more than $25,000; and Queen Of Aspen, a stakes winner with earnings of more than $82,000.
Tate’s interest in racing led him to be a member of the board of directors of the Kansas Quarter Horse Racing Association since 1962, serving three years as president. During his tenure, KQHRA successfully lobbied for pari-mutuel wagering in Kansas.
In 1967, Tate was elected to the AQHA Board of Directors and chaired the racing committee in 1977 to 1979. He was nominated to the AQHA Executive Committee in 1985 and served as the Association’s 39th president in 1989. He continued to serve the Association after serving on the executive committee by chairing the finance committee.
Tate was inducted into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame in 2000.
Biography updated as of March 2000.