Riding career

Mahan broke into professional rodeo at the age of 14. He won the title of World All-Around Rodeo Champion

World All-Around Rodeo Champion

This is a list of PRCA World All-Around Champions. The championship is awarded at the National Finals Rodeo by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to the top All-Around Cowboy....

 for five consecutive years from 1966 to 1970, and a sixth time in 1973. His 1973 comeback and competition with Phil Lyne was the subject of the documentary The Great American Cowboy

The Great American Cowboy

The Great American Cowboy is a 1973 documentary film by Kieth Merrill. The film, which won the 1973 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, is about the battle between two rodeo stars for the world championship: veteran Larry Mahan and newcomer Phil Lyne.-External links:* at the Internet Movie...

, which won the 1973 Academy Award for Documentary Feature

Academy Award for Documentary Feature

The Academy Award for Documentary Feature is among the most prestigious awards for documentary films.- Winners and nominees:Following the Academy's practice, films are listed below by the award year...

.

His consecutive all-around record was not surpassed until 1994 by Ty Murray

Ty Murray

Ty Monroe Murray is a nine-time World Champion rodeo cowboy and co-founder and board adviser of the Professional Bull Riders.-Early life:...

, and his six total all-around victory was not surpassed until 1998, also by Murray. He was also World Bull Riding

Bull riding

Bull riding refers to rodeo sports that involve a rider getting on a large bull and attempting to stay mounted while the animal attempts to buck off the rider....

 Champion in 1965 and 1967.

Honors

Mahan was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1979, the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum's Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1966, and the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame

Oregon Sports Hall of Fame

The Oregon Sports Hall of Fame honors Oregon athletes, teams, coaches, and others who have made a significant contribution to sports in Oregon. The first class was inducted in 1980, with new inductees added in the fall...

 in 1985.

After rodeo

After he retired from rodeo, he established the Larry Mahan Collection, a line of western wear. He is also one of the title characters in the song Ramblin' Jack and Mahan by Guy Clark

Guy Clark

Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....

. Larry is also the host of RFD TV's Equestrian Nation.

In 1976, he released an album on Warner Brothers (BS 2959) entitled Larry Mahan, King of the Rodeo. The songs on the album are:

1. Freckled Face and Pretty Ribbons
2. There's More to a Cowboy
3. Stunt Man
4. King of the Rodeo
5. Larry's Salty Dog Blues
6. Mom's Silver Dollar Saloon
7. Up Jumped the Devil
8. Rosie's Palace of Pure Love and Fingertip Massage
9. Smokey Mountain Cowboy
10. Ha Ha

In 1972, Mahan had a small part in the Cliff Robertson

Cliff Robertson

Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...

 movie, J.W. Coop. In the 2007 movie No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men (film)

No Country for Old Men is a 2007 American crime thriller directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, and Josh Brolin. The film was adapted from the Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name...

, Josh Brolin's character buys and wears a pair of "Larrys".