CASPER, Wyo. -- The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association historically has provided a superb training ground for some of the Professional Bull Riders' top competitors, ranging from Ty Murray to Jim Sharp to Jerome Davis to Michael Gaffney.
And that's well worth remembering this weekend as the College National Finals Rodeo celebrates its 60th anniversary at the Casper Events Center.
College rodeo differs from NCAA-sanctioned sports in that the NIRA allows its athletes to compete in the college and the pro ranks at the same time. And historically, that has attracted many of the sport's greatest competitors to the college association.
Murray, for example, won the NIRA's all-around title in 1989 while competing for Odessa College. He also won his first of a record seven world all-around titles in 1989 and later became one of the PBR's biggest stars.
Murray is the only cowboy who has won a college and pro world all-around title in the same year. It's the equivalent of being a dominant football star at the University of Texas and the Dallas Cowboys in the same season.
Sylvia Mahoney of Vernon, Texas, who is the author of "College Rodeo: From Show to Sport," said much of the NIRA's success can be traced directly to the policy of allowing its competitors to compete in both the college and pro ranks at the same time, something it has done since its early years.
Mahoney said many cowboys in the late 1940s and early 1950s were attending college after serving in the military and they were also competing in the pro ranks.
"After the college rodeo association took off, you saw more and more of the professional champions having gone to college," Mahoney said.
Like Murray, Sharp also left his mark on the NIRA by winning the bull riding title in 1986 while competing for Odessa College. Two years later, he became the first cowboy to stay on all 10 bulls at the National Finals Rodeo.
In the early 1990s, Sharp, a two-time World Champion, became a PBR member and used his star power to help the PBR become the world's premier pro bull riding association.
Like Murray, Sharp is retired from bull riding, but he made his mark in the PBR. Sharp earned more than $860,000 at PBR shows.
Alvin Davis, the chairman of the National Cowboy Symposium and Celebration in Lubbock, Texas, who also headed up the NIRA in the late 1950s, said the NIRA is a stellar training ground for pro cowboys because "it gives them the opportunity for competition among their age group and to do it big time, so when they get out of college, they are ready to go pro."
One cowboy who excelled in the pros immediately after competing in the NIRA was Michael Gaffney. In 1988, 1989 and 1990, Gaffney qualified for the College National Finals while competing on a rodeo scholarship at Western Texas College.
"It was the best thing that I ever did for my bull riding career as a kid coming from New Mexico," said Gaffney, adding that he had to learn to be competitive against very tough cowboys such as Murray when he the West Texas-based college. "It was extremely tough back then. It was either you join the big time or you get left behind."
Gaffney rose to the occasion by winning the bull riding average at the 1991 National Finals Rodeo. A year later, Gaffney helped form the PBR and he won the association's world title in 1997.
In 1992, North Carolina cowboy Jerome Davis won the NIRA bull riding title while competing for Odessa College. In 1995, Davis was the first champ to claim a residence East of the Mississippi when he won a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association bull riding title. (At the time, the world's top riders were competing heavily in both the PRCA and PBR when the PBR was in its baby stages).
In 1998, Davis became wheelchair-bound after being thrown head first into the arena floor at a PBR show in Fort Worth. Today, Davis serves as a stock contractor, a PBR show organizer and a TV commentator.
Another cowboy who accelerated through the college ranks before excelling in the PBR was Ross Coleman. He won the NIRA men's all-around title in 1998 while competing for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Today, Coleman is a 10-year pro with more than $1.2 million in PBR earnings. And he's on the card at the PBR's Built Ford Tough Series tour stop that's scheduled for June 21-22 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
In 2001, Dustin Elliott won the NIRA bull riding title while competing for Chadron State in State in Nebraska. He also is scheduled to compete at the BFTS tour stop in Dallas.
For the history buffs of western sports, it's very moving to read the list of college champions year after year and then examine their pro records. One of my big childhood heroes was Phil Lyne, who in 1972 accomplished the very unusual feat of winning the world all-around and calf roping titles and finishing second in the world bull riding race. He also won the NIRA men's all-around titles in 1968 and 1969 while competing for Sam Houston State. Last year, Lyne was inducted into the PBR Ring of Honor.
With all that in mind, the NIRA must be commended for helping shape the careers of great bull riders while they received college education.
"Today, you see so many cowboys getting college degrees, and then they (compete professionally) for that brief span of time that they can stay at the top," Mahoney said. "Then, afterwards, they have the chance to go into whatever field they've gotten their degrees in."
