TULSA — In 1940, the Oklahoma State Prison at McAlester hosted a unique event - a rodeo, which at the time, was the only such event to take place inside prison walls.

For nearly seventy years, those rodeos continued on an annual basis, with only two breaks.

[Hear our In-Depth Report on the possible resumption of prison rodeos in Oklahoma HERE]

One break occurred during World War Two; the other, during a prison uprising in the 1970s.

But in 2009, they held the last rodeo there, as budget issues, crumbling facilities, and complaints about animal cruelty shut it down.

There’s a move on to bring the rodeos back to Big Mac, and it’s being spearheaded by the executive director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Stephen Harpe.

He tells KRMG he’s already managed to set aside a million dollars to begin working on repairs and upgrades - but admits he needs the legislature to come through with about another $8.3 million to get the job done.

The good news, he says, is that he has a lot of support in the legislature, and from the governor as well.

“Governor Stitt has been asking me about this every time we meet,” Harpe told KRMG. “There’s so much interest at the Capitol as well.”

He believes the rodeos would be a win for his agency, for the city of McAlester, and for the state in general.

“We see this as a lot of win-win-win opportunities. Win for the private sector, win for the state, but also a win for the inmates themselves,” Harpe said. “You talk to people that ride, that are involved, and it’s just - gives them a pride, there’s a sense of pride that goes with it. I think there’s also a sense of freedom.”

Participation would be a privilege of course, earned by the inmates. It’s unclear at this point what roles prisoners would be allowed to fill.

Harpe hopes there will be media interest, and named ESPN 2 and Netflix as examples.

And, perhaps tongue-in-cheek, he told us the rodeos could be the biggest thing ever to hit Oklahoma.

“I think it could be the biggest ticket in Oklahoma, I don’t care who comes to town,” he told KRMG. “Taylor Swift, as big as she is, you know she could come to town. I think this rodeo could end up being bigger than Taylor Swift.”