Monthly Archives: December 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)

LAS VEGAS — Trevor Brazile accomplished a feat this year that only one other cowboy has been able to pull off in rodeo history — win seven world all-around championships.

But, it was not until the final day of the 51st Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas that he earned his gold buckle to equal Ty Murray’s accomplishments.

After a pedestrian run at the NFR, Brazile had enough to overcome Josh Peek who took him to the very end before Brazile could claim the championship.

In the process, he passed Larry Mahan and Tom Ferguson, who had won six world all-around titles.

Brazile was humbled and honored to reach that point after his 13th season in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

“The only day better than the 10th round is the day after the 10th round,” he said. “It’s a relief. It’s been a tough week. If there’s a lesson for anybody out there, confidence is good, but there’s no room for cockiness in this sport. You can get set back really easy. This is the quickest serving of humble pie you can get in any sport.

“Just to know that there are guys out there battling. There’s nothing that says in the next year that you can’t get over the hump. I’m going to take everything I learned this year and make next year the best one I’ve ever had.”

 Brazile came into the NFR with a commanding $144,638 lead over Clint Robinson in the world all-around race, but his run toward the title was not as easy as many had expected. Robinson was eliminated in the seventh round, but Peek emerged as the new threat and battled Brazile to the very end.

That was not the way many had expected the scenario to play out. There were some who saw Brazile make a mockery of the title run, maybe win the buckle by around the fifth round.

But in the end, his route toward his seventh world all-around championship was a lot more difficult.

He didn’t win his first sizable check at the NFR until the fifth round when he tied Cody Ohl for first place ($15,342) in tie-down roping with a time of 7.1 seconds. Prior to that, he had only sixth-place checks of $2,764 in team roping and tie-down roping to show for his efforts.

A final charge also gave Brazile the tie-down roping title after entering the NFR with a $32,123 edge over Hunter Herrin. He eventually won the event, beating brother-in-law Tuf Cooper by $13,994. The two world championship buckles moved him into third place on the all-time list with Dean Oliver and Charayne James with 11 buckles each.

He didn’t break his yearly earnings record ($425,115 set in 2007), but he did win $346,779 to surpass $300,000 in season earnings for a record fourth consecutive year.

But, most of all, he won his seventh world all-around title, the most important buckle he has ever owned.

“Winning an individual title is great,” he said. “But, winning the all-around is the most important thing for me. I want to be an all-around cowboy, not just a tie-down roper, team roper or steer roper. I want to do it all. (read more)

At 28 years old, Casey McMillen is more than accomplished. The nationally-ranked rodeo addict has spent his entire life working toward one goal – becoming the world champion steer wrestler.

McMillen, grandson of Ken McMillen of Sidney, grew up in Laramie, Wyo., and was introduced to bulldogging at an early age.

His family later moved to Craig, Colo., where his career began to take off at about the age of 15. After all, steer wrestling is in his blood, so his path in life was inevitable.

“My dad rodeoed when I was growing up,” he told The Sidney Sun-Telegraph in a phone interview. Although his dad “never went to Nationals.”….(read more)

Let’s talk instant replay…. This topic has really blown up lately as far as the Rodeo Arena. Personally when I was watching round 10 of the WNFR and Luke Branquinho threw his steer and it rolled right out of his hands and the judges called it “NO TIME”, my heart just sank. Then immediately you think, “play the replay, play the replay”. Well they can play the replay all day long, but if it doesn’t count for the cowboy or cowgirl what is the point? So that is the big question right now…where is instant replay in rodeo?

 Personally I feel that if we want the world of rodeo to be respected and treated like a professional sport, we need to have the advantages that professional sports associations  have, and one of those is instant replay. These rodeo athletes work so hard all year long, and there is a lot of money on the line, so I feel they should have every opportunity they can to succeed. Instant replay will help with this, plus I am sure every judge in the arena, NEVER wants to make a bad call, so this would help in those situations as well.

 However there are still many questions that have to be answered. Should instant replay just be at the NFR, or do we have it at all tour finals? How does the PRCA decide which rodeos are important enough to warrant instant replay? These are all questions that I am sure people want answers to.

 How do you feel about instant replay in rodeo?