A former rodeo champion and a member of the famed `Six Pack` was laid to rest today. It was a day to celebrate the life of Tom Tescher and to lay his body to rest. Over 350 family, friends, even those that call Tom Tescher their hero gathered at the Community Center in Medora to say goodbye.
"Absolutely a special guy all the way. Tom was honest, straightforward, and a good operator,"
says Willard Schnell, a close friend of Tom Tescher.
Tescher was a member of the famed "Six Pack"
of the `50s, `60s, and `70s. The "Six Pack"
were six Western North Dakota Cowboys who ruled the cowboy world during this time. It included rodeo cowboys Tom Tescher, Duane Howard, Dean Armstrong, Joe Chase, Jim Tescher, Tom`s brother, and Alvin Nelson.
With Tescher`s passing, only two of the famed "Six Pack"
are alive today: Alvin Nelson and Duane Howard.
"We traveled together rodeo`n quite a lot. He wasn`t only a great bronc rider, he was a great friend and good fellow and real fun guy,"
says Alvin Nelson, a famed "Six Pack"
member and friend of Tescher`s.
And also an unbelievable family man. He qualified for the 1960 National Finals Rodeo in Dallas, but passed this opportunity of fame and glory because it would have meant being away from his wife and ten kids on Christmas Day. He was a hero.
"And our sport of course was rodeo, and he`s our hero; he`s one of the six pack, and he could go anywhere in the United States or Canada, and win at bronc ridin`,"
Schnell says.
And a best friend.
"He was really full of tricks and a great fella,"
Nelson says.
And a North Dakotan Cowboy who left behind a legacy that will never be forgotten. Tom Tescher won the first North Dakota Saddle Bronc Riding Championship in 1948 and won it again in 1950. He was ranked in the top ten of saddle bronc riders from 1955 through 1958. He was inducted into the North Dakota Hall of Fame in 1998. Tom Tescher was 82.