THE KAMIKAZE KID
By Kendra Santos

With the exception of family members, how many people do you know who would, without hesitating, run into a burning building or jump into the eye of a fierce ocean storm to try to save you, knowing full well they would likely die trying?

If you, like me, are lucky, you can think of a few. Rob Smets makes my list. We've known each other since we were kids, and long before the rest of the world knew who he was he stood out as somebody special to me.

When I locked the keys in a friend's truck at the Red Bluff Junior Round-Up one year, I panicked until I saw Rob. He found a way to get into the camper, crawled through the boot into the cab and got those keys out of there without causing a scene or any damage I'd have had to explain later. He saved the day with a smile, and didn't do it for the roar of the crowd. There was nobody there but me. He did it because helping someone made him feel good.

From that day and all those like it forward, I've known that Rob Smets was a person of character who never did need a spotlight or a packed house to perform at his peak. I've also known that, similar to what I've heard about Tuff Hedeman's childhood days, Rob Smets didn't become a legendary bullfighter because he was the most gifted natural athlete in the world. He made that happen by being the toughest, tryingest guy out there, and refusing to quit.

I sat on the fence and watched Rob take his first few passes at bulls at places like Bolado Park in Hollister, Calif., during dinky district four high school rodeos way back when he was doing it on a dare from local bullfighters Frank "Stubby" Gomes and Donnie Landis. There he was, fighting bulls in his Justins just for the challenge and the fun of it. The beauty of it is, 25-plus years later, nothing's changed.

Robert Edward Smets was born Sept. 11, 1959 in Palo Alto, Calif. The son of heavy equipment operator Bill and housewife Ebe Smets, Rob also answered to little sister "Betsy's big brother." Bill Smets, who has since retired after 37 years in the Operating Engineers Union, provided his kids a multicultural upbringing.

When Rob was a kid, the family spent three years in Thailand, where Bill helped build the Satthipp U.S. Naval Port and the Utapao Air Force Base during the Vietnam War in the late '60s. From there, the Smets family's voyage took them to Singapore and Puerto Rico for a year before landing them in Australia for three more years.

"I learned early that color doesn't matter," says Rob, now 41. "Those experiences made me a lot more vocal about standing up against racism in the South, where I live now.

"Smets, who spent the balance of his childhood in San Martin, Calif., and graduated from Palma High in Salinas, now lives in Shamrock, Texas, with his wife, Carla, and their girls. Between them, they have four daughters Corey, Josie, Sammy Jo and Dylan.

"I didn't grow up around rodeo," Smets said. "I never even started rodeoing until my sophomore year in high school. Back in the '70s at the high school rodeos I was roping and riding bulls. I kept popping off to the bullfighters, so they told me to try it. I decided I'd rather get chased by 'em than get on their backs. That adrenaline rush and all the near misses were pretty cool, and I've been at it ever since.

" After all these years, Smets remains at the top of his game. In 2000, by a vote of the best bull riders in the world, he worked both the PBR Bud Light Cup World Championships and the National Finals Rodeo.

"The guys select the bullfighters, and that's the way it should be because their lives are on the line," said four-time World Champion Bull Rider Tuff Hedeman. "The fact that they vote for Rob means he's still the guy they want out there.

"One thing about Rob Smets is, when you're in a jam you know he's going to be right there in the middle of it. He's always right in the middle of it. He's always jumping in there. Rob's a tough guy. You aren't going to meet a tougher guy. People need to remember that when you're riding, you might face one or two bulls a night. The bullfighters have to face 45-60 bulls a night.

"Smets earned his "Kamikaze Kid" nickname straight out of the blocks, and has continued to earn it every year of his storied career.

"The first time I saw Rob he flew into El Paso to fight Harry Vold's No. 45, Purple People Eater," Hedeman remembers. "He was the meanest SOB in the world at that time. But Rob wasn't scared."

"When I was riding, I always felt good when I knew Rob was there, because if things got ugly I knew he'd be right in the middle of it," said longtime cowboy great Cody Lambert. "And I can still see that in him today. The greatest bullfighters don't hesitate, and Rob's still one of the great bullfighters."

Smets fought his way back from two broken necks to retain his top billing. In March of 1992, he tangled legs with a bull at the rodeo in Monroe, La., and the bull stumbled and fell on top of him. He suffered a break of the C-4-5-6 vertebrae, which is the same injury that landed former Detroit Lyon Mike Uttley in a wheelchair. Doctors fused the three vertebrae with pins, wire and bone, and told Smets to look for a new line of work.

But they didn't know Smets. He worked his way back to the top and won the fifth of his Wrangler Bullfight Tour gold buckles in 1994.

But in 1996, at the rodeo in Memphis, Tenn., a bull torpedoed Smets head-first into the barrelman's barrel and broke his C-1 vertebra. That's the injury that paralyzed actor Christopher Reeves."My ears rang like never before; like there was a tuning fork in there," remembers Smets, whose sponsor partners include the Fiddle Back Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyo., Diamond Cut Jeans and Justin Boots. "The doctors told me I'd never fight bulls again, but all that did was make me mad."

The range of motion in his neck isn't what it was before being snapped twice, but Smets' guts never took a hit.

"I love the adrenaline rush and the challenge of getting in and getting out," said Smets, who four times has been voted to work the PBR Finals, but had to sit it out in '96 after the second broken neck, and has worked seven NFRs. "To be 41 and have all these kids vote and think I'm still supposed to be here means everything to me.

"I feel blessed that God's let me play the game as long as I have, and I don't want to go away yet. Wick Peth is my hero. He was 49 when he worked his last Finals. God willing, I'll get there, too."

Smets is sky high on the PBR. "The PBR is the best thing that's ever happened to the sport," said Smets, who fights bulls in baggies that measure 56 inches around the waist and 20 inches down the inseam. "This sport's blown wide open. There's been some great leadership and some great television coverage, and they've reached out and touched the fans. Bud Light saw it was a great deal from the beginning, and they were right. PBR events are very exciting. It's man against beast, blood and guts. And people like blood and guts.

"When you get on this caliber of bulls week in and week out there will be injuries. The bulls always come to play. There are no days off around here. These bulls are always ready to rock and roll. That's made the cream rise to the top. If you want to be around the best bull riders, you come to the PBR. There are a lot of talented young kids coming out of the woodwork with all this money they're riding at. It's really fun for me, as long as I've been around, to see kids like Ross Coleman coming on. I've known Ross since he was 5 years old."

How many of you who watched the recent footage that was included in the TNN feature on Coleman noticed that the bullfighter running alongside him when he was riding a steer was Smets? He's been through a few generations of bull riders in the 24 years he's had his PRCA card.

"Rob's kind of like (fellow bullfighting great) Jimmy (Anderson, who's 47) and Red Wolf (the legendary Herrington Cattle Company bull who retired in 2000 at the megamature age of 13)," Hedeman said. "You just don't see guys who are still able to do their job that many years down the line.

"The average career of a bullfighter is about like the average career of a bull or bull rider. You just don't see guys go that long. It's so physical that they don't last. They're not supposed to. To be competitive at this level year after year just doesn't happen.

"His peers also deeply respect Smets.

"I met Rob in 1979 in Hope, Arkansas," Anderson said. "We were both working the rodeo for (16-time World Champion and PBR Ring of Honor recipient) Jim Shoulders. Rob was a real hot dog. We've always been a good team, and we've always communicated real well together in the arena.

"Rob and I won the first team bullfighting contest they ever had, in Waco, Texas, in 1980. We beat Skipper Voss and Miles Hare, and Wick Peth and Bob Donaldson. We took it to 'em.

"Anderson says he loves Smets "like a brother."

"In fact," he said. "I'm probably closer to Rob than I am my own brother because of what we've been through together in the arena. I've had some of the best performances of my career with Rob, and I've occasionally gotten to laugh at him for being a poor loser.

"What I admire most about Rob is his grittiness and his toughness. He may be making a really terrible face, but he's probably going to get up. In all the years I've known him, if it was a contest he wanted to win it, right along the Tuff Hedeman line.

"Another superstar among bullfighters, Joe Baumgartner, worked both the PBR Finals and the NFR with Smets in 2000.

"I went to one of his bullfighting schools, and Rob's the guy who signed my PRCA card for me," said Baumgartner, who's fought bulls at every PBR Finals to date and nine NFRs. "The first time I ever partnered up with Rob in the arena was at the PRCA rodeo in Livermore (Calif.) my rookie year. Tuff got hung up on Dan Russell's No. 22 Danny Boy. I could have gotten him out, but what ran through my mind was, 'Rob Smets is a world champion. This better be his deal.' So I gave Rob the opportunity to take the shot.

"I didn't sleep that whole night, and decided then that that would never happen again. I wasn't going to pass up any shots anymore.

"Smets, who in addition to the title of cowboy lifesaver extraordinaire was at that time busy winning his record five Wrangler Bullfight Tour world titles, awed young bullfighters the way Hedeman left rookie bull riders starstruck.

"Rob was the man," Baumgartner said. "And everybody wanted to be like him. You had to look up to him. He was at the top of his game. He was the boss.

"Rob's always been known to disregard his own body for the health of others, and he hasn't changed at all. He's still the kamikaze he was when he was young. He has no care about the sacrifice he'll have to make to get his job done."

Smets, who looked up to Peth, Voss, Hare and Anderson the way Baumgartner did him when he was coming on, got a lot of mentoring help from Donnie Landis' dad Bill back in his high school days. He also boxed some then, and notes a similar fear and respect of your opponent in that sport.

In his decades of bullfighting, Smets has been a big part of the revolution that's taken place in his craft."What was so wild and wide open has turned into ring savvy," said Smets. "To be a good bullfighter isn't shear wild craziness. It's about being a good anticipator, seeing the wreck before it happens and knowing where the bull rider's going to hit before he gets there. If it comes down to it, I'm going to throw my body in there. If a guy's going to be laying there, I'm going to be laying there with him.

"When I fight bulls best is when the contact starts. That's when I get mad and want to get even. Anybody who's ever seen me fight bulls knows I'm at my best after I get run over. And I get stronger as every bull goes. My timing gets better and sharper with each bull. I'm like the old knockout punch prize fighters. You let me hang around to the late rounds and I get dangerous."