Jerry Golliher

Jerry Golliher was born in Flagler, Colorado. His parents were Zoder and Margaret. In 1955 his dad moved the family to a ranch north of Newell near Hoover, South Dakota to raise sheep, cattle and horses. On the ranch, his two brothers, Warren and Jim , along with his sister Mary, did chores every morning before school. Jerry’s favorite toy growing up was a rope and he loved roping. He recalls that when he was younger his family only came into town three times a year: Fourth of July in Belle Fouche, Newell Labor Day and Nisland County Fair.

Jerry attended High School in Newell, South Dakota where he boarded with four to five other students. He played football and was active in rodeo. He placed fourth at the High School Nationals in the Cattle Cutting event. He was also crowned Homecoming King at Newell. After high school, Jerry attended Black Hills State College and received a Business Administration Degree. While in college, rodeo had just started at the college level and Jerry was the first to win the Great Plains Regional calf roping title.

Jerry met his wife Sue Smeenk in 1970 from a well known ranch and rodeo family at a Quonset building where they practiced roping. In 1977, Mr. Golliher and his wife bought some land between Belle Fourche and Spearfish and built one of the first indoor barns in the area. Jerry and Sue have three children, Zeann, Lane and Ross. Some of his proudest moments have been with his children. He said there have been a lot of proud moments, the culmination of a lot of things.

The Golliher Breakaway School has been going on for the past 26 years and over 900 students have attended. People still come many days a week to practice at the Jerry’s barn. Jerry’s favorite type of horse is a quarter horse because they are quick and fast. His family is one the oldest families to raise quarter horses. In 1948, his dad got their first registered quarter horse stallion at the Denver Stock show , named Fire Fly Chief for $1,675. Jerry still has horses that are descended from those early horses. The Golliher ranch has about 25 horses on the ranch now.

Jerry isn’t the bragging type, but he not only won awards at the high school, college level, and amateur level, his horses and family have had success at the professional level. He has also been inducted in the Casey Tibbs Hall of Fame and the Black Hills State Rodeo Hall of Fame. Jerry is proud of his wife, Sue who won the Calgary Stampede barrel racing in 1979. Both Jerry and Sue were honored by the South Dakota High School Rodeo Association as persons of the year in 2013. Mr. Golliher continues to win competitions and mentors many Rodeo stars like Jesse Bale who compete at Nationals Finals Rodeo (NFR).

When asked what advice he had for young people today, Jerry’s advice was they are the the future of our society and country. The most important people are your teachers. Learn everything you can from your teachers. Jerry’s philosophy of life is to respect each other and help one another out, no matter what their situation is. If everybody did that we would have a wonderful society.