STEPHENVILLE, Texas (May 25, 2010) - It’s a great starting point.
That’s what Ty Murray called last week’s nomination for the Sports League of the Year, an honor that ultimately was given to the NFL.
“You just keep putting one foot in front of the other,” he continued in his weekly Podcast. “We ought to be very proud that they’re starting to recognize us as a sport, let alone put us up against the three biggest sports.
“I felt that was a great honor. There were a lot of other great sports that weren’t even in that mix.”
Every week, Murray records “Final Word” Podcast for PBR.TV, and while he normally opines on the previous Built Ford Tough Series event, this summer he’ll be offering his thoughts on the sport – past and present – and looking ahead to the remainder of the season.
A little more than 18 years after Murray and 19 fellow riders gathered in an Arizona motel room and invested $1,000 each to break away from rodeo and form the PBR, the nine-time World Champion says that they’ve “made a lot of progress.”
But he added, “We still have a long ways to go.”
The Sports Business Award nomination, handed out by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal and Sports Business Daily, was an important “step forward”; however, Murray is equally determined to see the PBR and its athletes honored with an ESPY nomination.
It’s a cause Murray began pursuing in earnest last season.
“In a way you have to be a little bit embarrassed to be the ESPYs and have a sport that was nominated for Sports League of the Year, and you’re not even looking at a bull rider for an ESPY,” he said.
The PBR continues to receive mainstream recognition.
A year after Murray was featured on the hit ABC series “Dancing with the Stars,” Cord McCoy and his older brother Jet were competitors on CBS’ hit series “The Amazing Race.”
While Murray finished fourth with the support of the Cowboy Nation and America as a whole, the McCoys advanced to the finale and finished second in a race that took them from the United States to South America, Europe and China, before circling back to the U.S.
“I watched Cord on the ‘The Amazing Race’ and he made me so proud,” said Murray, who added that opportunities like that are “another part” of the continued success of the PBR as it grows in popularity.
“It gives [network TV audiences] a chance to become more aware of cowboys and cowboy culture and how cowboys conduct themselves. Maybe the next time they’re flipping the channels and they see a bull riding on, maybe they’re going to stop and see what it’s all about. If they give it a chance they’re going to love it.”
Over 18 years of work, a staff of over 100 employees has helped grow the sport of professional bull riding to where it is today. Later this summer, the PBR will surpass $100 million in prize money paid out to riders.
Murray noted that an important key in the process is to make the PBR better for the riders, fans and stock contractors, who continue to breed and raise the rankest bulls in the world.
“Bull riding has been around for a long time and it’s been a great sport for a long time,” Murray said, “but it was just a small circle of people who knew about it, understood it and realized what a great sport it is.
“Whenever you can expand that, then it means more people are interested, more people are tuning in, more people want to become a part of it – it’s more attractive to the sponsors – and as it gets like that, then it means more money for the guys to start equaling the amount of sacrifice that they make.”
But it’s important in maintaining the integrity of the sport that the Built Ford Tough Series features “the very best guys,” and according to Murray, “you still want them to come earn it.”
“I grew up in an era where I watched my heroes, pretty much when their rodeo career was over or their bull riding career was over, they were pretty much looking for a job,” he recalled.
“The PBR has started to turn that around.”
For traditionalists who are resistant to change and the continued growth of the PBR in mainstream and pop culture, Murray offered one parting question.
“Before we started growing this sport,” he asked, “when did they get to watch bull riding on TV every week?”
NEWS and NOTES
Injury updates
J.B. Mauney. Injury: Lung. Since being released from a Wichita, Kan., hospital, Mauney, who is still sore, is resting comfortably at home in North Carolina. He is expected to resume competing at the BFTS event in Tulsa, Okla.
Jordan Hupp: Injury: left leg, ankle. Hupp says surgery is not necessary, and he is planning to return to action at the BFTS event in Tulsa, Okla.
Wiley Petersen. Injury: shoulder. Peterson is planning to rest between now and the BFTS event in Tulsa, Okla., in effort to allow his shoulder time to heal.
Kody Lostroh. Injury: shoulder, elbow. Lostroh continues to rehab his left shoulder, and has improved range-of-motion. He is expected to have his elbow surgically fixed in the next week. Lostroh is hoping to resume competing the first week of October.
Brian Canter. Injury: hip, knee. Canter had his hip and knee surgically repaired, and is currently rehabbing in North Carolina. Canter said he would like to return to competition at the upcoming BFTS event in Tulsa, Okla., but that he realistically is more likely to return in late July or early August.
Ryan Dirteater. Injury: knee. Dirteater is continuing to rehab his knee and is not expected to be medically cleared to ride until July.
