Clovis Crane makes history with four year-end championships in First Frontier Circuit
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- A contestant during the first two seasons of the reality television series World's Toughest Cowboy, Clovis Crane showed up for work at Farm Show Arena to demonstrate the full meaning of "tough," at the Jan. 15-17 Dodge First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeo, presented by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco.
Crane put the finishing touches on an achievement unprecedented in PRCA history, claiming the year-end circuit championships in four categories -- all-around, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding.
And he did this with a broken leg, wearing an air cast and in constant pain.
"The doctor who did the surgery (Oct. 9) was very adamant that I not do this, that I stay off the leg," Crane said, "but I felt like I had a chance to do something special, and I didn’t want to give that up."
Actually, what the doctor said was that Crane needed a second surgery to do a bone graft for his badly shattered fibula, but Crane declined. For now. Only the year-end bull riding title was mathematically assured at the start of the DFFCFR, and Crane knew the rest were up for grabs if he was a no-show.
"I knew I didn't have to have a special rodeo to hold my leads," Crane said, "just a few dollars here and there."
He reached the eight-second whistle in all three rounds of the bareback riding to finish third in the average, earned a share of second place in the second round of the saddle bronc riding and closed out his weekend by winning the third round of the bull riding.
It made him a perfect 4-for-4, breaking a record shared by more than a dozen cowboys who had won three year-end circuit championships in the same year, including Trevor Brazile, Leo Camarillo, Lewis Feild and First Frontier rival Darren Morgan, who won his fourth consecutive all-around title last year, along with those in steer wrestling and tie-down roping.
"At the beginning of the year, my goal was to win the all-around," Crane said. "I wasn’t even thinking about any of the individual titles. Darren Morgan is as good a roper as there is out there, a guy who can compete and win anywhere. He just competes on the First Frontier because his family is here.
"About two thirds of the way through the year, I realized that if I was going to win the all-around (over Morgan), I was probably going to have to win all of the individual titles."
Crane is now qualified for the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, presented by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco, in three events, which puts him in elite company with ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductees Ty Murray (1992) and Paul Tierney (1990).
He is planning to cut back on his competition for a while to let his leg heal and prepare for the April 8-11 DNCFR in Pocatello, Idaho. If he has the bone graft surgery, he will not be able to compete at Pocatello, and he doesn't want to let that happen. He figures he's competed in pain all year, so what's a little more?
Even before a bull stepped on him Oct. 2 at the World's Toughest Cowboy auditions for season three, breaking the head of his tibia, shattering the fibula, breaking two bones in his ankle and three in his foot, Crane had experienced a series of injuries, all to his right leg. A bull stepped on his calf, leaving him with a nasty hematoma that had to be repeatedly drained. He suffered a partial tear of the MCL. He broke two bones in his foot when his day job as horse race trainer went bad and a horse ran him into a fence. And then then he had hematoma in his thigh that was so painful that he fixed up a four-inch piece of PCP pipe to cushion his thigh against the saddle.
"I limped all fricking year," Crane said. "How do I feel now? I'm sore, beat up and ready for a break."
The average championships at the Dodge First Frontier Circuit Finals Rodeo were won by bareback rider Terry Lee Owens, steer wrestler Kirk Trumpower, team ropers Cody Warner and Fred Brunelle, saddle bronc rider Chad Aleskey, tie-down roper J.R. Myers, barrel racer Nickie Stoltzfus and bull rider J.R. De Marsh.
Cody DeMoss closing in on $1 million in career earnings after win in Lafayette, La.
After winning the saddle bronc riding at the Mid-Winter Fair & Rodeo in Lafayette, La., Jan. 15-18, Cody DeMoss is on the threshold of becoming the 78th PRCA cowboy to reach the $1 million mark in career earnings. DeMoss is just $6,744 shy of the milestone and could get there as early as this weekend at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, where he is in second place in the first round with an 83-point ride, five back of Dusty Hausauer of Dickinson, N.D.
JoJo LeMond and World Champion Heeler Randon Adams earned a share of the first-round lead in team roping Monday in Denver, with a 4.5-second run that matched World Champion Header Matt Sherwood and his new partner, Rhen Richard.
It's been a good rodeo for local favorites Tim Shirley and Josh Peek thus far. Shirley, of Conifer, Colo., leads the second round of the saddle bronc riding with a 90-point score and also leads the two-head average with 172 points. Peek, of Pueblo, Colo., leads the first round of the tie-down roping with a time of 7.6 seconds and the two-head average in 16.3 seconds.
Pearson sets arena record in steer wrestling at Alexandria, La.
Tyler Peason of Louisville, Miss., set an arena record by winning the steer wrestling in 3.0 seconds at the Amicus Club Pro Rodeo, Jan. 16-17, in Alexandria, La. Pearson, 32, was six-tenths of a second faster than Sean Mulligan and Brady Hageman, who tied for second place, and it took a 3.9 or better to earn a paycheck at the Rapides Parish Arena. "It's a small arena," said announcer Andy Stewart, "but the guys did a good job and the (Classic Pro Rodeo) steers were outstanding."
Saddle bronc rider Alan Frierson won at Alexandria with an 84-point ride on Classic Pro Rodeo's Suzy Q and also won at the Americomm Pro Rodeo Classic in Lakeland, Fla., with a 77-pointer on Four L Rodeo's Moon Flight.
Taos Muncy, the 2007 world champion saddle bronc rider, cashed at both Alexandria and Lafayette, La., but was overshadowed by his sister, Jordan Muncy, who won the barrel racing over a good field at Lafayette.Upcoming PRCA Rodeos
Jan. 20 National Western Stock Show and Rodeo, Denver, continues through Jan. 25
Jan. 23 PRCA Championship Rodeo, Lincoln, Neb., begins
Jan. 23 Homestead (Fla.) Championship Rodeo, begins
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