In a sport where heritage and history are cherished and the past is an integral part of the present, few events better represent rodeo's historic tradition than Deadwood's Days of '76 Rodeo.

The 87th annual event begins today with five days of rodeo action that conclude on Saturday.

The popularity of the rodeo is bolstered by the fact that the event has been selected nine times by the participating cowboys as the PRCA rodeo of the year in its class.

"What cowboys love about Deadwood," said George Milos, director of the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce, "is not only the history of the town, but they love the history of the rodeo arena, the old wooden arena and the wooden chutes. Rodeo is an old sport with a storied past, and they like the fact that when they are here, they get to go back in time and be part of that past. It reminds them of their grandparents and when they use to rodeo."

Most of the top cowboys and cowgirls on the PRCA circuit will be in attendance according to Pat Roberts, a longtime rodeo committee chairman.

"We will have outstanding South Dakota cowboys such as Scott Montague, Dustin Reeves, Jesse Bail, J.J. Elshere, Cody Taton and Chad Ferley," Roberts said. "And we are expecting Jill Moody and Lisa Lockhart back again to compete in barrel racing. They will be joined by the likes of 2008 world champion all-around cowboy Trevor Brazile and many others. All of the top hands will be here."

This year's rodeo will be the first year of a revised format that eliminated the Sunday afternoon rodeo of past years with twin performances on Saturday, a 1:30 p.m. afternoon round followed by the last performance of the rodeo at 7:30 p.m.

"When we had the Sunday afternoon performance, we had a tough time getting a lot of the top cowboys because we overlap with Cheyenne Frontier Days," said Mac Meyer, chairman of the Days of '76 organizing committee. "Now they can be in our rodeo on Saturday evening and still make the final short-go at Cheyenne on Sunday afternoon. Also, people can now take in a whole day of entertainment on Saturday. They can watch the parade in the morning at 10 a.m. and the 7 p.m. performance."

The 2009 Days of '76 begins with a steer-roping round at 10 a.m. today. Timed-event slack will be held Wednesday and Thursday at 8 a.m. Barrel racing will follow the timed-event slack Thursday morning. Rough stock rodeo performances will go at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday followed by the 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. performances on Saturday.