Lifetime Leaders of Rodeo & Ranching Rodeo Ranching Great Westerner Western Entertaiment & Arts Rodeo Producers & Livestock Special Achievement Cowboy Long Rider Legacy Award

Ranching

Brooks J. Keogh
2003 Hall of Fame Ranching Inductee

 Books James Keogh was born Aug. 4, 1914, at Williston, the son of Frank and Elizabeth Carney Keogh. He had one sister, Elizabeth. Brooks grew up on the Keogh Ranch at Keene, founded by his father and uncle in 1899. He took part in cattle drives to the rail head at Sanish and lived most of his life on the ranch. He attended rural McKenzie County schools, Williston High School and the College of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn., graduating in 1938. Brooks worked for a Montana oil company for six years before entering the U.S. Marine Corps in 1944. After the war, he entered into a ranching partnership with his father, running commercial and purebred Hereford cattle. Brooks began a Quarter Horse breeding program, his most noted stallion being Gang Boss, grandson of King P234. He married Kathleen "Kay" Hyland in 1944, and they had three children. Kay died in 1970, and Brooks married Elizabeth Coughlin in 1972. He was active in many industry-related organizations–a founder and only president of the Sanish Rodeo Association, president of the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association in 1954-56 and president of the American National Cattlemen’s Association in 1964-66. He was a National Livestock Produc-ers board member for 20 years, served on the Bureau of Land Management Advisory Council, was an original trustee of the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and active in the McKenzie County Grazing Association, Farm Bureau and Republican Party. Brooks was honored as the NDSU Saddle & Sirloin Club’s Agriculturalist of the Year in 1966, inducted into the North Dakota Agriculture Hall of Fame and received the North Dakota Stockmen’s Association Top Hand Award in 1982. The Greater North Dakotan Award in 1983 recognized his lifelong service to industry, friends, state and country. Brooks owned and operated the historic Keogh Ranch until his death July 31, 1984.