Heading for the Last Roundup Of This Year

Todd Peterson

Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1998 | 9:10 a.m.

It's that time of the year when this rough 'n' ready frontier town earns its golden spurs. National Finals Rodeo, the granddaddy of all rodeos, jumps the chute this weekend, snorting and snotting like a one-ton bull.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rides the big event into the Thomas & Mack Center for the 14th straight year, Dec. 4-13.

It's an important year for the PRCA and the NFR; in addition to the milestone anniversary, it marks a continued growth in public interest and awareness of the sport of rodeo.

Many of you folks reading this already know what an event this is and can be, and there's an ever-growing legion of fans joining your ranks.

This year's purse stands at a whopping $4.2 million. That's a record amount, up nearly $1 million over last year's prize money. The money paid to these fierce cowboy and cowgirl competitors continues to grow as more fans realize the excitement of rodeo. As a result, sponsoring advertisers are realizing the general public's interest in this fantastic, dust-churning sport and scrambling for their piece of the cowpie.

Sports Illustrated has called the NFR the Super Bowl of rodeos, but unlike the Super Bowl, the NFR doesn't run merely the span of an afternoon. Fans and participants alike pour into town for 10 full days of hooves, saddles, spills and thrills. "[Rodeo fans] love to see someone get hurt or knocked down, but they like to see them get back up again," one cowboy told ShowBiz. "They like to see the wreck, but they always want to see them get up with a smile."

This year NFR is expected to attract 171,000 attendees to its sold-out spectacular. Additionally, ESPN and ESPN2 are anticipating 9 million viewers for its 10-round broadcasts.

NFR newcomers may not know exactly what to expect, so here's a rundown of the events:

Comprising seven wild competitions, the NFR is divided into two categories: roughstock and timed. Bareback riding, saddle-bronc riding and bull riding are the roughstock events; calf roping, team roping (heading and heeling), steer wrestling and barrel racing are the timed.

Bareback riding is the most physically draining and damaging of all the events. The trick for bareback riders is not only to stay on the bucking animal an eternal eight seconds, but to look good doing so. To do this, the cowboy must extend his legs, holding them above the shoulders of the horse. His feet must remain in that position until the bronc's hooves hit the ground after its initial jump from the gate. In compiling the final score in bareback riding, not only is the rider judged for his performance, but the horse's performance is rated as well.

Saddle-bronc riding is an age-old rodeo roughstock favorite, but unlike its counterparts bareback and bull riding, the name of the game with saddle bronc is style. Although style does count and can disqualify or render scoreless the riders in the other two events, its importance in judging the saddle-bronc ride is the end-all. The rider synchronizes his movements to those of his horse, aiming for a graceful jaunt, the ballet of the rodeo as it were.

The last of the roughstock events is the bull ride. Rodeo events originally grew out of the chores that were part of early cowboys' normal routines. Taming broncs, catching calves, tackling steers and racing a horse were all rooted in the chores men performed daily. But bull riding? As opposed to the two types of bronc riding, bull riders are not required to mark out the animal by placing their feet above the shoulders. And style, well, staying aback the animal is the name of the game. However, like bronc riders, bull riders are only allowed to hang onto the animals with one hand. In the case of bull riding, the cowboy grips a flat braided rope that is fitted around the chest of the bull and behind the front legs. Each bull provides riders with a different experience, moving in distinct directions, some spinning one direction, others moving in their own style altogether.

The timed events begin with the speediest--steer wrestling, which posts a world record of 2.4 seconds. If you're not paying attention, it's easy to miss. Generally referred to as "bulldogging," this event requires two participants: the bulldogger and the hazer. When the steer breaks from the chute, the hazer rides along next to it to keep it from veering in order that the bulldogger may catch it. Once caught, the objective is to wrestle the animal to the ground. Sounds easy, but the cowboy isn't finished until all four of the animal's feet point skyward. Considering the steer usually outweighs the cowboy by a ratio of 2 to 1, it's not like wrestling with a bag of groceries.

Team roping is the only team event in rodeo and requires two contestants, the header and the heeler. The steer is given a head start out of the chute. When he reaches the breakaway barrier in the arena, the team takes off. Led by the header, he attempts to catch the steer with one of three legal rope holds: around both horns, one horn and the head, or around the neck. When the header has secured the steer, he turns the animal so the heeler can rope both hind legs.

Though not a team sport, the calf roper requires an extraordinary amount of support from his horse. The object is to see how quickly the cowboy can lasso the calf, bring it to the ground and bind three of its legs. The event originated when cowboys had to snag sick or injured calves and disarm them, if you will, for veterinary treatment. It became an informal ritual between cowboys before growing into the full-fledged sport it is today.

The final timed event is women's barrel racing. The object is to speed the horses through the barrels in as expedient a manner as possible without knocking any over.

It's said records are made to be broken, and this year's NFR is poised to see a number of distinguished names fall to second place.

Ty Murray, cowboy extraordinaire, is back at this year's NFR. Murray, who shares the world record of six consecutive All-Around Cowboy titles (1989-94) with Tom Ferguson (1974-79), will attempt to earn his seventh All-Around Cowboy to break the three-way tie between himself, Ferguson and Larry Mahan. Although Murray can't steal the lead for consecutive wins (at least not for another seven years), this year's rodeo will reveal whether he's able to be the top dogie in All-Around titles.

Murray spent the past three years recovering from knee and shoulder injuries, but recently told ShowBiz he's at the top of his game.

"I came back [to rodeoing] the beginning of this year. I had to work real hard with the training and therapy to get back to being physically 100 percent," he said.

So get ready rodeo fans. Pull up those boots, tighten that shiny new buckle and hold on tight. We're getting ready for one helluva ride.

Crown Royal Standings 1998 National Finals Rodeo Contenders

All-Around Cowboy 1. Ty Murray 2. Trevor Brazile 3. Herbert Theriot 4. Joe Beaver 5. Kurt Goulding

Saddle Bronc Riding 1. Dan Mortensen 2. Tom Reeves 3. Red Lemmel 4. Derek Clark 5. Billy Etbauer

Bareback Riding 1. Clint Corey 2. Rocky Steagall 3. Deb Greenough 4. Larry Sandvick 5. Chris Harris

Bull Riding 1. Ty Murray 2. Mike White 3. Blu Bryant 4. Kelly Armstrong 5. Cody Custer

Calf Roping 1. Cody Ohl 2. Fred Whitfield 3. Trent Walls 4. Blair Burk 5. Stran Smith

Steer Wrestling 1. Mike Smith 2. Rope Myers 3. Byron Walker 4. Herbert Theriot 5. Lee Graves

Team Roping (Heading) 1. Charles Pogue 2. Speed Williams 3. Bret Boatright 4. Steve Purcella 5. Chance Kelton

Team Roping (Heeling) 1. Britt Bockius 2. Rich Skelton 3. Kory Koontz 4. Allen Bach 5. Steve Northcott

Steer Roping 1. Guy Allen 2. Trevor Brazile 3. Marty Jones 4. Jim Davis 5. Tee Woolman

Barrel Racing 1. Kristie Peterson 2. Sherry Cervi 3. Janet Stover 4. Chamayne James 5. Molly Swanson

*(unofficial standings following Grand National Rodeo are pending an audit and subject to change)

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