Quite a year PRCA enjoys successful 2007 season

Posted Tuesday, November 27, 2007

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – With the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo once again putting a fitting close to another ProRodeo season, it is natural to want to take a look back at the 2007 season and celebrate its high points. There were many memorable events, several surprises and a number of record performances, giving the PRCA’s fans plenty to cheer about throughout the year.

The season began strong with Wrangler ProRodeo Tour events in Odessa, Texas, and Denver, and those events led into a pair of rodeos with record purses. The San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo, held in February, became the PRCA’s first regular-season rodeo to feature total prize money in excess of $1 million. In March, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo joined that group, boasting a record $1.2 million purse, with $50,000 checks going to each event winner and $55,000 shared by the team roping champions.

Those million-dollar rodeos helped catapult contestants to the top of the Crusher Rentals PRCA World Standings, where many of them have stayed for the duration of the regular season. Their record prize money disbursements were also further proof that the sport of rodeo is thriving and enjoying considerable financial success.

March was a busy month, as the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, presented by U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, crowned its annual champions. Bareback rider Wes Stevenson, steer wrestler Greg Bennett, team ropers Colt Braden and Jake Long, saddle bronc rider Anthony Bello, tie-down roper Cutter Parsons, bull rider Cooper Kanngiesser and barrel racer Shali Lord all added their names to the list of DNCFR champions.

On May 8, the PRCA held an open membership meeting at PRCA Headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., where PRCA administration presented the association’s financial status and goals for the future. In the meeting, Interim CEO and Chairman of the Board Keith Martin notified the attendees that the PRCA once again was enjoying a strong financial year, and he and other Board and Executive Council members took questions from the audience.

“We felt like there were so many things going on with our association that we needed to have a meeting to talk about it,” Martin said about the meeting. “We have a future that looks bright, and we have a product that people want. Financially, there are a lot of good things that are happening.”

Unfortunately, the year was not all about winning. On June 20, ProRodeo lost arguably its greatest ambassador and most accomplished champion when Jim Shoulders passed away. His death rocked the rodeo world and left a void that may never be filled, but those who mourned him also were quick to celebrate his life.

The PRCA’s annual celebration that is the ProRodeo Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony followed the next month, with nine new members gaining entrance into the hallowed Hall on July 14. The late Dorothy Apodaca, Dr. Doug Corey, Jim Davis, Michael Gaughan, the late Joe Glenn, Lecile Harris, Bud Munroe, the late Ronnie Rossen and Dan and Linda Russell’s prized bull Skoal Pacific Bell were inducted into the elite group.

The late summer and early fall season saw a couple of firsts and new additions to the PRCA slate.
In an effort to grow prize money and increase opportunities for its contestants, the PRCA created the Heartland ProRodeo Series in late August. The Series, which began with the 2008 season’s first rodeos in October, added support to the PRCA’s rodeos with purses of $30,000 or less by giving contestants more incentive to enter the rodeos that qualify in that category. More than 160 rodeos originally signed on to be part of the Series, and rodeo officials expect the number to grow to nearly 300 in 2008.

Points are being awarded to contestants for their performances in Heartland ProRodeo Series events, and the top contestants in the standings at the end of the Series will qualify for the Heartland ProRodeo Series Championships, Oct. 3-11, 2008, in Waco, Texas.

“Our goal is to improve this sport and all our great rodeos for everyone involved, rodeo committees to contestants, contract personnel to stock contractors,” Martin said when the Series debuted. “We believe the appeal of the season-ending championships will help Heartland ProRodeo Series rodeos draw bigger and better fields across the board, so it’s a win-win situation. I think this series will be a huge hit with our fans, too, and pleasing the people who love this sport like we do is always a top priority.”

The four-stop Ariat Playoffs gave a new and exciting ending to the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour. It began in Caldwell, Idaho, in mid-August, continued through Puyallup, Wash., in early September and concluded with stops in Omaha, Neb., in late September and Dallas in early November. Contestants battled it out in the bracket-style playoff system with ferocity before Tour champions were crowned in Dallas.

Once again, the Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour, presented by B&W Trailer Hitches, provided excitement from start to finish. The 10-stop season began in Rapid City, S.D., in January and concluded in Indianapolis in late October, with Kanin Asay emerging as Dodge Xtreme Bulls National Champion. Asay, of Powell, Wyo., earned more than $72,000 on the Dodge Xtreme Bulls Tour helping propel him to his first Wrangler NFR berth.

Four-time and reigning World Champion All-Around Cowboy Trevor Brazile continued to etch his name in the record books. He added a second straight steer roping world title to his resume and further extended his record for pre-Wrangler NFR all-around earnings with $285,412 heading into this year’s National Finals.

Not to be outdone, barrel racer Brittany Pozzi-Pharr set a regular-season earnings record for her event, racking up $164,521 prior to this year’s Wrangler NFR. Pozzi-Pharr’s performance this season has been one of the highlights of a successful first season of Professional Women’s Barrel Racing (PWBR), the PRCA’s barrel racing governing body. Bobby Mote broke the regular-season earning record in bareback riding with $152,184.

So, to say the least, it has been a busy and exciting 2007 season, one that has entertained rodeo fans at every turn at events across the nation. This year’s successes have proven that rodeo is, indeed, “The Greatest Show on Dirt.”