On any given weekend, you’ll probably find Terry Wheatley sitting in the stands at a rodeo, taking notes for her rodeo competitor grandchildren. The world of rodeo informed Terry’s creation of the iconic marketing campaign called Tough Enough to Wear Pink. But when the Central Californian is not being a professional rodeo observer or brainstorming ideas for the campaign, she’s serving as president of a company that oversees 14 major wine brands, including one called Purple Cowboy.
Doing Ranch Wife Things
Terry was raised on a ranch in Northern California, 15 miles south of Red Bluff, home of the Red Bluff Round-Up rodeo. She rodeoed as a kid, as well as in junior high, high school, and a bit of college. She met Jim Wheatley in 1971, and they married in 1973.
When Terry met Jim, he was the Western States Amateur All-Around Champion Cowboy. The year they met, he got his PRCA card, and would go on to be a six-time qualifier for the NFR in team roping. He won the NFR in 1974.
Soon after they got married, Jim went on the road chasing rodeo titles and Terry went to work for E & J Gallo Winery in Modesto, Calif., to supplement their income.
Terry and Jim’s son Wade followed his dad’s footsteps. When Wade qualified for the NFR in team roping in 2000, it felt a bit like a happy déjà vu to Terry to be back in the family seats at the biggest rodeo in the country.
Tough Enough to Wear Pink
Terry worked for E & J Gallo Winery for 17 years, rising through the administrative ranks through executive roles. She then worked for Sutter Home—now called Trinchero Family Estates—for 14 years, ascending to senior vice president of sales and marketing.
“I was living two separate lives at that time,” Terry recalls. “I had a ranching and rodeo life, where I hauled my son and his roping partner Kyle Lockett, along with [his mom] Sharyn Lockett, to pretty much every junior and then high school rodeo on the West Coast. Both made the nationals in Gillette until they turned professional. Sharyn and I logged a lot of miles on weekends as rodeo moms. But come Monday morning, I put on a suit and went to work.”
In 2000, Terry was diagnosed with breast cancer. She commenced treatment and had a double mastectomy that year. She has been cancer-free since 2000.
“My grandmother died of breast cancer, and my mom had a double mastectomy when she was 38, so it was in my family,” Terry says. “While at Sutter Home, I created a breast cancer campaign called Sutter Home for Hope.”
Terry wanted to bring together her work life with her rodeo life. She noticed that some rodeos had partnerships with brands like Coors Light and Jack Daniels. Focusing on the company’s white zinfandel wine, and working with the Wrangler National Finals rodeo where ESPN had a telecast, an idea was born.
“We did a sponsorship for a night at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo,” Terry says. “During the stage coach time, we challenged the cowboys, ‘Are you tough enough to wear pink?’”
From this one event, the famous “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” campaign was formed to raise money for breast cancer research, treatment and care.
“We launched it, hoping 25 percent of the cowboys would wear pink,” Terry says. “But if you watched it, every single cowboy except for two—who wore pink ribbons on their shirt—wore pink. And then everything exploded.”
This is an organization that empowers grassroots efforts, rather than raising for a central cause.
“The beauty of this campaign is that all the money raised in the local community stays right there,” Terry says. “We didn’t want to set up a charity and take money. We wanted to help people. I’m a marketer—that’s what I do for a living. We create ideas—we’re a centralized hub for ideation.”
The Tough Enough to Wear Pink™ trademark is licensed out to rodeos and events to help them raise money at the local level. Various organizations run with the campaign in ways that fit their audience.
Terry says the Gunnison Cattleman’s Day in Gunnison, Colo., set up a 501(c)(3) and under the Tough Enough to Wear Pink™ trademark, raised money for mammography machines. They’re now working to build a cancer wing for more than just breast cancer treatment, and bought vehicles to transport women from their town into Denver for cancer treatment.
Another rodeo has raised money to provide housing for women in treatment, while another has raised money to build a women’s center connected to a hospital.
“There’s story after story, and that is the true strength of this campaign—money stays right there in the community,” Terry says.
In 2022, the Tough Enough to Wear Pink™ campaign announced $39 million had been raised, she says.
Even the base concept of the campaign helps the cause, Terry says. A woman shared with her that seeing the cowboys wearing pink reminded her to quickly schedule a mammogram—where they found a lump and were able to remove it.
“Awareness is the first step to early detection, and early detection saves lives,” Terry says.
Purple Cowboy Wines
In 2005, Terry started her own wine business called Purple Cowboy Wines—a dream she’d had since she was 24 years old working at Gallo.
“I went back to my roots,” Terry says. “One of the winemakers I’d met at Gallo told me a story about a group of wine makers in Napa Valley that drank red wine during the week, and on the weekends they rodeoed. Their teeth stayed purple because of the wine, and they were known as the Band of Purple Cowboys.”
Terry aimed to create a product and a brand that supports the ranching community. With names like “Trail Boss” and “Tenacious Red” and a logo like a rodeo belt buckle, these wines are designed to appeal to horse folks, as well as mainstream audiences.
“We source it out of Paso Robles [Calif.], which for all of us in the wine business is known as ‘Cowboy Wine Country.’ This wine is for cowboys, but it’s also for people outside the ranching world. It’s romantic. It’s mystical. It’s magical.”
All profits from Purple Cowboy Wines go to the Tough Enough to Wear Pink foundation, covering marketing, website, social media and more.
In 2014, Terry sold Purple Cowboy Wines as part of an agreement with a business partner. The company was sold to Vintage Wine Estates, which promised to retain Terry’s team.
“They wanted to continue the legacy of Purple Cowboy and continue to support Tough Enough to Wear Pink,” Terry says. “That has been a phenomenal thing for the brand, and for me personally.”
Terry became the senior vice president of marketing for Vintage Wine Estates, then the senior vice president of sales, and in 2018 was appointed president of the company. In 2021, she helped take the company public.
That same year, Terry was named one of Forbes magazine’s 50 over 50. This designation meant a lot to her.
“It’s nationally recognized, and it’s something that I’ve preached to the women that I mentor and the people I help in business—your life really begins at 50,” Terry says. “That’s when you’ve got the experience to really live your best life and show the world what you’re made of.”
After a corporate career in wine, Terry left Vintage Wines Estates in July of this year, retaining ownership of Purple Cowboy, and has gone back to doing what she loves best—creating wine brands and watching her grandchildren compete in the sport of rodeo.
The Future
Terry’s son Wade married a college rodeo champion named Lacey, and the couple have three children. A few years ago, Lacey started working with Terry at Tough Enough to Wear Pink, and she is now the director of the organization.
“We work together on new ideas,” Terry says. “I support her, but she runs it every day.”
Terry now leads a brand creation, sales and marketing company called Connect the Dots Collective, but in her off time, the now 70-year-old is reveling in her rodeo grandma era.
“I used to watch my husband rodeo on the weekends, and I really enjoyed hauling my son around and supporting him,” Terry says. “Now my grandsons and granddaughter are active in rodeo. So I get to watch my grandkids do the same thing that I enjoyed. I’m a professional spectator when it comes to rodeo. I get such pleasure out of watching the next generation of my cowboy family rope.”
This article about Terry Wheatley and Purple Cowboy Wines appeared in the October 2023 issue of Western Life Today magazine. Click here to subscribe!
