Our own 30 for the 30th anniversary of NFR in Las Vegas

By John Katsilometes

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014 | 12:28 p.m.

Staged and celebrated annually in Las Vegas since 1985, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo is finally upon us, as evident by the black Resistol hat resting on the kitchen counter. The event starts Thursday at 6:45 p.m. and runs through Dec. 13, pumping somewhere in the neighborhood of $90 million in nongaming revenue into the city and selling out the Thomas & Mack arena every night.

The NFR’s impact can be measured in the vast array of events in the valley, with more than 20 official sponsor hotels hosting events related to the rodeo and many more taking on a country theme. The Cowboy Christmas Gift Show shopping experience (and it is exactly that) opens Thursday at 10 a.m. at Las Vegas Convention Center’s North Halls (for a full list of events, go to NFRExperience.com).

Given that this is the NFR’s 30th anniversary in Las Vegas, we roll out our own roundup of 30 fun facts about the rodeo. This will take something longer than 8 seconds, mind you, but let’s ride it out.

30: Osceola County, which nearly wrested the rodeo from Las Vegas last winter to Florida, is named for the Indian leader Osceola, whose name means “Black Drink Cry.”

29: Pendleton Whisky (a performance sponsor) is sometimes known as “Brown Drink Cry.” Or at least it could be.

28: Cowboy legend Larry Mahan competed in more than 1,200 rodeos and never suffered an injury he’d consider “serious.”

27: South Point owner Michael Gaughan, who serves on the National Finals Rodeo Committee, has missed only six of 280 nights of NFR action since the rodeo moved to Las Vegas in 1985.

26: A round of NFR moves quick, at two hours. It is not uncommon for other rodeos across the country to run for three hours.

25: Through an intense training regimen with South Point General Manager Ryan Growney, South Point Arena and Equestrian Center Director Steve Stallworth has dropped 25 pounds and is 180 (he played quarterback at UNLV at 195).

24: Ryan Growney and stock contractor John Growney of Growney Brothers Rodeo Co. are not related.

23: South Point Arena and Equestrian Center, which is the site of Benny Binion’s World Famous Bucking Horse and Bull Sale, has five “luxury suites” for horses that were constructed at a total cost of $12,000.

22: A man whose first name is an indication of his vocation: bullfighter Dusty Tuckness.

21: The statue of Binion on a horse, at the bottom of the escalators leading to the South Point convention rooms, is adorned with Christmas ornaments.

20: The best sports book hoedown is at the Mirage, which hosts its “Rodeo Vegas” party in the middle of its sports wagering center after each round of the NFR.

19: You can build a NFR fantasy team and compete in an NFR fantasy league at ProFantasyRodeo.com.

18: The man who broke a 6-6 tie with a decisive vote to move the NFR to Las Vegas in 1985 is still with the rodeo: NFR President Shawn Davis.

17: Rodeo announcer Bob Tallman once said the greatest compliment he could receive was, “For someone not to find a reason to reprimand you on any one word or phrase you’ve used. If you aren’t stopped on the way out of the arena by someone complaining by what you did or didn’t say, you’ve had a good night.”

16: The best corporate fashion pairing in rodeo is George Strait and Wrangler. I mean, does not George Strait always look like a model for Wrangler?

15: Among this year’s national anthem singers are Mirage headliner Terry Fator (Friday) and Lee Greenwood (Sunday). Greenwood is performing later that night at Westgate.

14: Beloved bull fighter and announcer Flint Rasmussen suffered a heart attack at his home in Choteau, Mont., in March 2009. He was back at work in five weeks.

13: The good-time, classic-rock cover band Ricky and The Redstreaks are not listed to perform at any official NFR events this year. An NFR phenomenon for years, The Redstreaks once drew crowds of 5,000 to their rollicking shows at the Stardust.

12: Merle Haggard, playing Sunday and Monday at the Grand in Golden Nugget, played one of the last shows at Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts as a special guest of Bob Dylan. This was in April 2006, before that theater was renamed Planet Hollywood Theater for the Performing Arts.

11: The original prize fund offered by Las Vegas Events to pull the rodeo out of Oklahoma City was $1.8 million to the contestants and $700,000 to the contractors compared to $900,000 to the contestants and $200,000 to the contractors from Oklahoma City officials.

10: A fully restored Gene Autry Champion coin-operated horse-riding toy from the 1950s once sold for $8,950 at Cowboy Christmas at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

9: In a 2010 bull riders event in Augusta, Ga., bullfighter Darrell Diefenbach’s face was stomped by an 1,800-pound bull, crushing his eye socket. He underwent one emergency surgery the night of the incident and two more within a week to repair his eye socket, cheekbone and forehead. Titanium mesh, held in place by screws and plaster, was inserted under the skin on his forehead. He missed six weeks of work.

8: Bareback rider Ryan Gray suffered a lacerated liver during an NFR event. He also missed six weeks.

7: Rodeo contestants are the toughest guys ever.

6: It is not uncommon for even the top rodeo contestants to compete in more than 50 events per year.

5: Miss Rodeo Tennessee Morgan Blackhurst is the daughter of “Raiding the Rock Vault” bassist Hugh McDonald and his wife, Kelli. The pageant is 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Hollywood Theater in MGM Grand.

4: Thirty-two states are represented in Miss Rodeo America. Nevada is not one of them.

3: Twenty-time all-around champ Trevor Brazile once told ESPN The Magazine that rodeo events were all derived from practical ranch tasks. “But bull riding doesn’t serve any practical purpose,” he said. “It must have started as a late-night dare.”

2: During a pre-rodeo production meeting, NFR exec Harry Vold, an original member of that board dating to 1959, interrupted the session with, “The NFR needs to stay here! Everyone here should agree to start the negotiation process now because 2014 will be on us before we know it! This is a special event, and it needs to be in Las Vegas!” He said that in December 2010.

1: Those in the room who applauded Vold’s summation included PRCA chief Karl Stressman and Las Vegas Events President Pat Christenson, two key figures in the negotiations that led to the NFR’s 10-year contract extension to remain in Las Vegas through 2024.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.