HOUSTON \u2013 One has achieved legend status and the other has been tasked with filling his shoes.<\/p>\n
Leon Coffee and John Harrison are famous rodeo clowns, but behind the makeup are two men who seriously love what they do.<\/p>\n
For more than three decades Leon Coffee was right in the middle of the action, a legendary rodeo clown and barrel man known for protecting cowboys and entertaining crowds. Now, only for the second time he has taken a step back. He is no longer in the barrel, rather spending time in the stands with the fans who still love him dearly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a whole different world because I\u2019ve always been in the middle of the action,\u2019 Coffee said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little tough to not be doing what I\u2019ve done for over 50 years. And that\u2019s just an adjustment I\u2019ve got to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coffee says the decision didn\u2019t come easy. But after years of putting his body on the line, he knew it was time, even if walking away from the spotlight is not in his nature.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, father time has never been outrun. I gave him a race but I did not outrun him,\u201d Coffee said laughing. \u201cIt\u2019s still the fact that I love my sport. I love my business, I love this way of life so much that I\u2019m not going to quit.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he may no longer be inside the arena barrel, Coffee\u2019s presence is still felt across NRG Stadium, especially by the man who stepped into the role.<\/p>\n
John Harrison was personally chosen by Leon Coffee to carry on the tradition, a responsibility he doesn\u2019t take lightly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember exactly where I was when Leon called me,\u201d said Harrison. \u201cI was in a drive-thru at McDonald\u2019s in Indianapolis. He called me, I pulled out of the drive-thru. I couldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harrison said there\u2019s no replacing a legend, only honoring what came before.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody\u2019s like, \u2018You got big shoes to fill.\u2019 There\u2019s no fillin\u2019 Leon\u2019s shoes, this is completely different,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cTo roll that barrel in, and be there for the cowboys now, that he thought I could do the job, that means the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in the stands, Coffee now watches something he helped build, a show that still amazes him after all these years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a huge, huge production,\u201d he said. \u201cJust to know the logistics of how they run all this and the expertise that they run it with and the people that\u2019s involved with this.\u201d<\/p>\n
And while the role may have changed, the passion hasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve done my job, but it ain\u2019t over yet. I\u2019m not out there in the trenches, but everybody needs a little backup every now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leon Coffee actually performs in the barrel at several smaller rodeos each year, but he says his heart will always be with RodeoHouston.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 One has achieved legend status and the other has been tasked with filling his shoes. Leon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,28002,57,83217,83216,19168],"class_list":["post-212505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-livestock-show-and-rodeo","tag-houston-news","tag-john-harrison","tag-leon-coffee","tag-rodeohouston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}