NAMPA — For nearly 30 years, one of the faces of the Snake River Stampede has worn grease paint and entertained fans night after night.

It only seemed right that the Stampede thank him.

A near-capacity crowd Tuesday did just that, saying farewell to long-time barrelman Leon Coffee, who retired this year from working rodeo arenas.

“It’s indescribable, just flat undescribable,” Coffee said after receiving a standing ovation during Tuesday’s first performance of the 93rd annual Stampede, on the verge of tears. “I don’t know how many people are here, but when they all stood up like that, that’ll make a little dog break a big chain. That was runaway right there.”

The rodeo board brought Coffee back to say so-long in style, with a special luncheon followed by the welcome and thank you at Tuesday’s performance.

After 27 years in the rodeo arena in Nampa, Coffee enjoyed one more night, which included signing plenty of autographs for fans.

And he went out the same when he got started, he adds.

“That was something I’ll never forget, when I first — one of the first year’s I came here I had to fight bulls,” Coffee recalled Tuesday. “I got a standing ovation here that one night for fighting a bull and what a way to go out, with the same standing ovation.”

So just what’s the hardest part of stepping away from one of the nations best rodeos, one that has made Coffee part of it’s fabric?

“All of it, every bit of it,” Coffee said. “There’s nothing I can’t remember, there’s nothing I don’t want to remember. Everything here was great, there was never a bad day in Nampa, not for me.”

Maybe the only bad thing — watching, Coffee joked.

“That’s the one part I miss,” he said of not being in the arena, dodging bulls and broncs. “That’s where I’m more comfortable, I’m not comfortable watching the rodeo.”