Rodeo’s biggest show turns 40

Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 | 3:49 a.m.

The greatest rodeo in the world is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 1998.

The first National Finals Rodeo was staged in 1959 in Dallas with a modest purse of $50,000. After three years in the Lone Star State, the NFR went west to Los Angeles for three years before settling in Oklahoma City for two highly successful decades.

But in 1985, the world championship event moved to the gambling Mecca of Las Vegas. The pursed doubled that year to $1.8 million, beginning a trend of unparalleled success that continues today. The 1997 NFR in the Thomas & Mack Center paid out a whopping $3.4 million to its contestants last December.

But, with additional arena-side seating, the 1998 purse will swell to $4.2 million, further solidifying the NFR's place among the most lucrative sporting events in the world.

Only a select few rodeo athletes qualify to compete at the NFR each year. The world championship event annually features the top 15 contestants in each of seven professional rodeo even ts: bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping (15 teams), saddle bronc riding, calf roping, barrel racing and bull riding.

Most premier rodeo athletes must travel to 90-125 rodeos during a given rodeo season if they hope to still be competing in December.

But the contestants aren't the only ones who have a hard time making an appearance in the Thomas & Mack Center.

While more than 170,000 tickets to the 10-performance event are sold each year, the NFR remains one of the toughest tickets in the sporting world and thousands of rodeo fans head to Las Vegas every December in hopes of picking up a stray ticket at some point.

If you decide to stay home, you can still catch all 10 rounds of NFR action, plus a preview show and a wrap-up show, on ESPN and ESPN2. In 1997, NFR television viewership topped eight million.

The NFR and Las Vegas has been such a great marriage that the PRCA and Las Vegas Events, the co-producer of the NFR, have inked a contract that will keep the rodeo in town at least through the year 2007.

The contract also stipulates a steady increase in prize money that will make an NFR payoff of more than $6 million in the final year of the contract.

Like any world class event, the NFR has some very capable leadership. The executive general manager of the NFR is three-time World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider Shawn Davis of Filer, Idaho. The ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee was co-manager with the late John Burke from 1986-91 and has held the reins alone since 1992.

His duties include coordinating more than 1,000 workers and hundreds of horses, bulls and timed-event cattle.

Held in conjunction with the NFR each year is the PRCA Convention, which will celebrate its 52nd anniversary in 1998. More than 1,700 PRCA members annually trek to Las Vegas to attend seminars, share ideas and plan rodeos for the following year. The Riviera Hotel and Casino has played host to the event since 1995.