They arrived in droves, dressed in everything from boots and chaps and cowboy hats to sneakers, jeans and T-shirts. And they all wanted one thing: a taste of the wild, wild West.

True, Bluffton and Hilton Head Island might not be rodeo country, but urban cowboys come out of the woodwork when there's a mechanical bull in the vicinity. Dosido's restaurant's bi-annual mechanical bull riding contest held Nov. 4-5 was an example of the cultural phenomenon. The event roped in more than 600 spectators and contestants of all ages over the course of two evenings, according to Cody Brock, an emcee at Dosido's and master of ceremonies for the bull riding contests.

"It's laid-back people with a good attitude, who like to have a good time," Brock, 32, says of the urban cowboys who tend to show up for the contests.

But what exactly is an urban cowboy?

Think swagger. Think style. Think John Travolta as Houston mechanical bull champ Buford "Bud" Davis in the aptly titled 1980 film, "Urban Cowboy."

An urban cowboy -- a mixture of city sophistication and country kitsch -- probably doesn't work on a ranch. He or she might never have heard of the "Boot Scootin' Boogie." He or she might not know a saddle horn from a halter.

But he or she does sport cowboy duds and boots -- at least for a special occasion.

And, most of all, a true urban cowboy has straddled a mechanical bull at least once, in pursuit of a few seconds of glory.

"If you're an urban cowboy, (mechanical bull riding) gets you back to your roots, per se," Brock says.

Just ask the fellow who invented it.


Photo: Heather Criddle takes her turn on the bull. Criddle rides real horses, too.
Jonathan Dyer/The Island Packet
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The mechanical bull's Texas-based creator, Sam Reeves, now 69, says the invention spawned cowboy culture outside the rodeo arena.

Reeves, a rodeo fan and horseback rider, dreamed up the mechanical bull in the 1970s to help his wife's teenage brother learn to ride bulls, he says.

After the first model self-destructed, Reeves enlisted the help of an engineer friend to build a better bull. The two used the proceeds from a cowboy board game Reeves invented to create the first working mechanical bull.

They debuted the bull at a trade show at a world championship rodeo in Oklahoma City.

"We went to bucking it for $3 a ride, and it was an instant success," Reeves says. "People just swarmed all over us."

That success birthed Reeves' cowboy college, where he taught rodeo hopefuls the ins and outs of bull riding using the mechanical models for more than five years.

"We had them come from all over the U.S. to learn how to ride bulls and broncs," Reeves says.

He says he was about to give it all up and turn his cowboy college into a gym when a casting crew for the film "Urban Cowboy" came along and rented the school.

"I didn't think anything about it," Reeves recalls. "But then the movie came out, and my gosh, we all of a sudden had the hottest amusement device of the decade. I sold the fitness center and went to making bulls. I sold them all over the world. I sold all the bulls I could make."

Reeves' bulls bucked everywhere from Tokyo to South Africa, and the inventor appeared in several books and magazines. BBC traveled from England to film a special about the invention. National competitions generated a mechanical bull riders association.

But Reeves says the real lasting effect of the invention and the film "Urban Cowboy" is their impact on culture. The phenomenon made cowboys -- and cowgirls -- cool.

"You were a stud if you got on (a mechanical bull)," Reeves says, adding that the mechanical bull riding made cowgirls sexy.

Although Reeves left the mechanical bull business years ago, he says he's seen a renewed interest in cowboy culture of late.

"It's getting more popular now," Reeves says, attributing the rebirth to star-studded, million-dollar rodeo events in Las Vegas. "It ebbed for a while, but everything cycles. It's all of a sudden coming back."

Still, Reeves says, no amount of flash and glitter can beat the old-fashioned adrenaline that made mechanical bulls popular in the first place.

"There is such an adrenaline rush, you can't believe it," he says. "When you're up there riding that bull, it's a trip."

It might have been that rush -- or the combination of cold beer and loud country music -- that led to the contests' uncertain ending at Dosido's last weekend. No one seems to remember who won the competition on either night.
And if you missed the event altogether, Arlene Campbell, owner of Dosido's, says the bucking beauty will come all the way from Chicago again for the next event in May.

That contest might attract even more cow guys and gals, if Reeves' prediction about the resurgence of urban cowboy mania holds true.

"Bull riding is just now coming into its own," he says. "There's no telling how long it will go on."