PUEBLO, Colo. (August 8, 2008) - When Clayton Williams earned $215,000 last year at a major Professional Bull Riders event in Oklahoma City, the victory catapulted the Carthage, Texas, cowboy onto the association’s Built Ford Tough Series.
It also secured Williams a spot at the 2007 World Finals in Las Vegas, and it made all of the difference in his claiming the PBR’s Daisy Rookie of the Year title.
This season, Williams has clinched another World Finals berth and has ridden on the BFTS since he earned $525,000 in February as the result of winning the same show in Oklahoma City — the Copenhagen Bull Riding Challenger Tour Championship.
Though he earned $740,000 for winning two Oklahoma bull ridings and became a regular on the PBR’s top-tier tour, there was something missing: a victory on the Ford Series.
But Williams got what he’s longed for last weekend by winning a BFTS stop in Glendale, Ariz. Williams was the only rider who stayed on all three bulls, and he pocketed $28,100 after pacing the 45-man field.
“To me, it just made it feel all the more legitimate,” Williams said of winning in Glendale. “To win a Built Ford Tough event is what everybody shoots for. To win the Challenger Finals is great and a lot of money, but it’s tough to win a Built Ford Tough event because you are going up against the best guys in the world and the best bulls.”
Williams exudes confidence, and he’s all fired up about strapping on his spurs for the next Ford Series show at the end of the month in Nashville.
But although he’s riding better on the BFTS lately (he finished eighth at the July 18-20 tour stop in Tulsa, Okla.), Williams still stands out as the cowboy who won the PBR’s richest regular-season show two years in a row.
When he snared the Copenhagen Bull Riding Challenger Tour Championship a second time and pocketed a total of $740,000, it was an all but unbelievable story.
"Everybody gets their turn to win, but mine just keeps falling on the right weekend every year," Williams said.
No kidding.
Williams rose to the occasion at the right time and in the right place. When he won the title in early 2007, Williams was a low-profile pro who was attempting to earn his spurs on the national circuit, and the Oklahoma City show was designed as a star search.
The field of competitors was a mix of PBR's top-tier tour members and up-and-comers who qualified from lower-level tours.
His first win was remarkable. But his second one was perhaps even more remarkable. Williams won the 2008 Oklahoma City title despite a nagging elbow injury in his right (riding) arm.
He was the only rider who stayed on all three bulls.
“I knew people didn't believe I could win it again because of the injury, and what's the odds of winning it after winning last year?” Williams said. “But that made me want it even worse. But then again, maybe I am lucky.”
As he competed for the title at the 2008 edition, Williams wore the same greenish colored plaid western shirt that he wore last year in Oklahoma City. And he says he’ll wear the same shirt if he competes in the 2009 edition.
And what’s Williams doing with all that money? He says he’s saving and investing.
Williams’ total earnings over the past two seasons in the PBR are $885,640. His 2008 season earnings are $573,095.
Williams could retire from bull riding, but the charismatic young cowboy said he has new frontiers to claim.
“My grandfather (Bob Williams) always told me I could retire when I got $3 million in the bank,” Williams said. “And just with what I won in Oklahoma City the past two years plus what I've earned in other places, I'm a third of the way there.”
And that’s not bad for a cowboy who began his career riding sheep when he was about four or five. The son of East Texas stock contractor Terry Williams, the younger Williams worked his way up through the junior ranks and was riding bulls by the time that he was a teenager.
Clayton Williams, 22, said he benefited from attending many high-profile PBR shows while growing up.
“I grew up as a kid wanting to ride those caliber of bulls and I thought anything less wasn’t good enough,” Williams said. “It gave me a strong and tough mentality to take on the best bulls in the world.”
In 2004, Williams won the Texas High School Rodeo Association bull riding title and earned a scholarship at Panola College in Carthage. But about the same time that Williams begin competing on the college rodeo circuit, he began to have success in the professional ranks and opted to pursue the latter full time.
J.W. Hart, the 2002 PBR World Finals average winner, said Williams has thrived on growing up around the sport.
“His dad was five-time stock contractor of the year in the PBR and has owned some of the greatest bulls of all time, and so Clayton is supposed to be able to ride bulls,” Hart said. “But he can be pretty streaky. Sometimes he gets really hot and he’s one of the hardest guys in the world to beat, and sometimes he can’t tie his pants onto a bull. He’s still young, and I think if he matures and gets into a prime, there’s no telling how good he will be.”
Williams’ father, Terry, said bull riding did not come naturally for his son, but Clayton has excelled because he’s overly determined to win.
“He just works at it and he’s really smart,” Terry Williams said of his son. “If he’s not winning, he’ll just figure it out. He’s going to try to win, no matter what.”
And while Clayton Williams can stay on the back of a bull in dramatic fashion, he also sells bulls that can throw a cowboy hat over spurs. He raises bulls along with his father, and some of their clients include Chad Berger, Jeff Robinson, Harlan Robertson and Sammy Andrews.
“With dad being in the business forever, I’ve got connections,” Williams said. “I’ve got a customer for any caliber of bull.”
Williams gets just as about as much excitement out of selling bulls as he does riding them.
“I like to look for a new adrenaline rush,” Williams said. “And I get it from trading bulls for big money.”
Terry Williams said his son thrives on taking on numerous business responsibilities.
“He’s always got something going,” Terry Williams said. “He’s got land that he’s bought, town lots that being cleaned up with big equipment and he’s got a ton of cattle and he’s always trading. By the time that he gets to the bull riding, he’s still trading.
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“And I tell him, ‘Clayton, it’s hard to do all of those things and ride bulls, too.’ Sometimes, I think he gets overwhelmed, but he’s always doing something and that makes him different from most people.”
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