Daily Archives: December 22, 2009

The Wrangler National Finals Rodeo at the Thomas & Mack Centre in Las Vegas can change a cowboy’s life forever.

It offers $5.75 million in prize money.

So can the World Series of Team Roping, which takes place during the last four days of the WNFR at the South Point Casino’s events centre.

It has $1,079,000 on the table in each of three handicap divisions.

Clint and Jeremy Buhler were in a hurry to get things done at the South Point so they could rush over to the Thomas & Mack to catch the last round of the rodeo’s world championships.

They missed the bareback riding, but got there in time to watch Lee Graves win the steer wrestling title and an event record $139,458.

It wasn’t the kind of money that shamed the Buhler brothers from the Longview area.

After all, they’d just won $109,000 apiece in four days at the South Point.

They stretched four steers in a total time of 29.04 seconds to top the Cactus Saddlery No. 13 handicap division, worth $100,000. And they collected another $9,000 for the three fastest times in their rotation — 7.01, 7.10 and 7.25 seconds.

There were about 300 teams entered in the division.

“It still hasn’t really sunk in,” said Clint, “we’re not used to that kind of money. It’ll change both our lives forever.

“We wouldn’t have gone if we weren’t confident and practised up, but you never expect to actually go and do as well as we did. You hope, but life is full of disappointments.

“We were thrilled to just place in the rounds, let alone get the big cheque at the end.” (read more)

It was rare meeting of legends.

Last week, the Fort Worth Stock Show gathered pro rodeo’s most successful living all-around champions Larry Mahan (1966-70 and ’73), Tom Ferguson (1974-79), Ty Murray (1989-94 and ’98) and Trevor Brazile (2002-04 and 2005-09).

During a news conference, Mahan, Ferguson and Murray commented on the Brazile era.

Some said rodeo stars have a much easier time of attracting media attention and sponsorships. Others said it was much easier to travel the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit in their day.

“Trevor (33, who lives in Decatur) will never have the opportunity that I had and that’s to hit the road in a real friendly world,” Mahan said. “Today, everybody’s in such a big hurry. Though we moved into a fast pace when we left the rodeo grounds, but it was a much friendlier world.”

Mahan, 66, a former bronc and bull riding kingpin who lives near Sunset, said moving through the airports was much easier 35 and 40 years ago.

“When you would go to get on a commercial flight, you might get to the front of the airport five minutes before the flight leaves,” Mahan said. “But if you did that now, they would have shot you. It’s really too bad that it’s come to that and that you must have that kind of security. But it’s a crazier world out there today.”

Murray, 40, a bucking stock riding legend who is from Stephenville, said it was much easier even in his heyday in the 1990s.

“We used to get on our airplanes with our spurs on if we didn’t have time to take them off,” Murray said. “We’d literally get off of a bull and run into the airport as fast as we could. We got to where when we would land, we’d have to get off of that airplane and rush to another one. But today, I know they sure wouldn’t let you get on an airplane with spurs.” (read more)