Whitfield returns for calf roping title defense

Thursday, Dec. 4, 1997 | 12:41 p.m.

A couple of decades from now, some Texas old timers will be sitting outside a local practice pen and the conversation will turn to the all-time greats.

"Now these new guys are pretty good, but y'all should have seen that Fred Whitfield back in the '90s," one will say. "In that Thomas & Mack arena in Vegas, man, seemed like every time he nodded they started writing his check."

Another gray-haired cowboy will chime in: "When he stepped off that horse, he'd have that calf down and tied so fast it was like watching a machine."

The topic of the masterful Fred Whitfield will likely fill that afternoon and many others. And the old timers will have to stretch something fierce to exaggerate any of it.

Whitfield, 29, of Hockley, Texas, roped his way to the lead in the world calf roping standings early in the 1996 season and never strayed far from it. He crowned the season-long effort by winning his third overall and second-consecutive world calf roping championship at the $3.2 million National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

"Going in (to the Finals) in the lead, a lot of guys think it puts a lot of pressure on you," Whitfield said after collecting his third gold buckle in seven years of professional competition. "I don't think it has bothered me the last couple of years, because I've gone in with the lead and I've managed to keep it."

Whitfield kept last year's lead by winning $58,336 at the NFR to finish the year with an event record $155,336. He won two rounds and placed in four others in Las Vegas.

The only miscues he had were when he missed with his first loop on his seventh and eighth-round calves. Even so, he tied the calves in 19.4 and 16.3 seconds, respectively, to hang onto fourth place in the NFR average race. His first miss came on the heels of an NFR record run of 7.3 seconds made by Cody Ohl of Orchard, Texas.

"The reason I missed that calf in the seventh round is that I was trying to compete with Cody instead of just going and tying that calf down," Whitfield said. "The crowd was going crazy and I was pumped. I knew I had a good calf and that if I got out and got it on him quick I could be faster than 7.4 and I just got off my game plan."

Other than that, Whitfield was a model strategist: Go for the jugular on the good calves, get by the bad ones.

And he kept the plan intact despite a fair amount of heat applied by Ohl, 23 -- who won the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds all in 7.5 seconds or less -- and Joe Beaver, 31, who was roping his way to a second world all-around title on the strength of earning a record $78,770 in calf roping during the NFR's 10-day run.

"I really didn't feel any pressure from that," Whitfield said. "I knew that if I just kept roping and didn't have anything disastrous happen, he'd (Ohl) have to win five rounds to have a chance. And it's like I told somebody, if Cody wins the last five or six rounds then he deserves to win the world championship."

Even when Beaver pulled in the last two round victories, Whitfield kept the plan intact. He tied his last two calves in less than 11.0 seconds each, and rode out of the arena as the 1996 world champion by more than $16,000 over Beaver and almost $18,000 over Ohl.

"Ice water in his veins," the old timers will say. "Those boys threw everything they had at him in Vegas back in '96 and he stared 'em down."

Maybe so, but Whitfield certainly appreciates the fortune he's enjoyed in the high-pressure, lightning-fast event.

"It's such a mental game out there," he said. "There's a sense of urgency in everybody. Everybody wants to do good and it just doesn't always happen that way.

"It's just great to be able to go out there and win"

* World Titles: 1991, 95-96 World Champion Calf Roper.

* Hometown: Hockley, Texas.

* Date of Birth: August 5, 1967.

* Height/Weight: 6-2/200.

* 1996 Earnings: $155,336.

* 1996 NFR Earnings: $58,305.

* Year Joined PRCA: 1990.

* NFR Qualifications: 7 (1990-96).