Ray Knight (rodeo organizer)

Oscar Raymond Knight (8 April 1872 – 7 February 1947) was a gold and silver miner, cattle rancher, large scale farmer, bank executive, industrialist, railroad executive, rodeo producer, rodeo stock contractor and rodeo champion. He was one of the Canadian Cattle Barons and considered one of the wealthiest cattlemen in the world.

He went by his middle name of Raymond and was known by most informally as Ray.

The first son and second child of six children of Utah mining magnate Jesse Knight and his wife Amanda McEwan, Ray Knight was born in Payson, Utah Territory and raised there on the family ranch as well as at their winter home in Provo.

Ray Knight attended school at the Brigham Young Academy, now Brigham Young University, in Provo.

In 1894, he married Provo school teacher Isabelle Smith. Five children, three sons and two daughters, came from this marriage: Uarda, Raymond, Kenneth, LeRoy and Lalla. The first three children lived to adulthood.

Born and raised a cowboy, Ray Knight was considered a top hand. Jim Meeks, who cowboyed with Ray Knight in Southern Utah, said, "Ray was...the best all-around cowboy on the roundup on Boulder Mountain."

Ray Knight was a rodeo producer and rodeo champion steer roper in Utah, winning his first roping championship in Salt Lake City in 1897 creating "The Cowboy Challenge" competing for the Interstate Championship and vying for the world's championship.

Ray worked in partnership with his younger brother, Jesse William "Will" Knight, and their father in his various business undertakings, including ranching, cattle buying and mining.