ONTARIO, Ore. -- Alameda Elementary School Principal Paul Erlebach knows that his job entails dealing with a certain amount of bull every so often.

He just never realized it could mean taking on a live one.

Erlebach had to corral an escaped 1,900 pound Charolais bull running loose on his playground this week.

He managed to chase the bull out of the playground and into a fenced city soccer field. Erlebach's quick actions in the Wednesday incident quickly earned him a new nickname in the community: Pecos Paul.

The escaped bull was in transit between two ranches belonging to his owner, Dan Swain.

When the bull was transferred from one trailer to the other, Swain said he forgot to latch the gate.

After Erlebach coaxed the bull into the soccer field, the parent of a student was on hand to help out.

Lonnie Bezona, a Snake River Correctional Institution employee, also does team roping and calf roping in rodeos. So he borrowed a barrel racing horse, and successfully roped the bull into a makeshift corral set up in the soccer field.

Swain said the bull was finally secured in the trailer by 3:30 or 4 p.m.

Here's the punchline: The next day, the bull disappeared from Swain's Weiser ranch. He believes it might have even crossed a river to escape. The bull, he told The Argus-Observer newspaper, doesn't have a name, but he'll consider naming it Houdini when the animal does turn up.