ProRodeo Sports News - Jan. 24, 2020

George Gibbs is celebrating 40th year as ProRodeo judge Hitting a Milestone PRORODEO ANNIVERSARY

BY TRACY RENCK W hen George Gibbs was growing up in Pueblo, Colo., the last thing on his mind was being a ProRodeo judge. That’s hard to imagine now. Gibbs is in his 40th year as a ProRodeo judge. “I never thought I would be doing this after all these years,” Gibbs said. “We didn’t know the direction (the judging) program was going to go. We all hoped it would go to the heights that it is now, but at that time you didn’t foresee that.” Gibbs was a tie-down roper in the PRCA and a bull rider. “Instead of roping all the time I rode bulls because I could go to more rodeos and never haul a horse,” Gibbs said. “I rode bulls some in 1980, but you just can’t ride bulls every other weekend. You don’t stay sharp.” An injury is what initially kick-started Gibbs’ judging career. “I showed up in Belt, Mont., and I dislocated my shoulder the night before,” Gibbs said. “I got to the rodeo and Liz Kesler said, ‘I need a judge.’ I told her I had never judged, and she said, ‘You will have judged after today.’ So, I judged. I thought I didn’t do that bad. I went and judged a couple of other rodeos and did pretty well, and somebody in the PRCA office heard I did a good job. When I was in PROCOM (with the PRCA), I knew Wrangler was going to have a program for pro officials, so I put my name in the hat. There were 150-some applicants.” The Wrangler Pro Officials Program was designed in 1981 by Ken Stemler. The idea was to build a base of qualified judges. Before the program, every PRCA contestant was required to judge one rodeo a year, if called upon, but the competency level was impossible to control. Gibbs was selected to be part of the original eight full-time Wrangler Pro Officials. Their responsibilities included overseeing the draw, flagging the timed events, watching the score line and judging roughstock rides. Their job is to make critical calls instantly. “It was an honor to be selected because most of the guys who were selected were past NFR guys who were very proficient in their events,” Gibbs said. Gibbs acknowledged plenty has changed in the rodeo judging world over the past four decades. “We are more professional, and I felt I have done a good job,” Gibbs said. “I like the officiating and I hope that I have always been an asset. When you go in the arena, there’s pressure, but it is still a job I felt is fun because you see something different every time. I get to go to different places.” However, Gibbs was quick to mention judging isn’t an 8-to-5 job. “I think I will do this for a couple more years,” said Gibbs, 67. “I’m in good shape and I get around. We put in some long days. We have slack that starts at 8 a.m., and we have to be there at 6, and then slacks runs until 3:30 or 4 and we have to be back for the 7:30 rodeo. Then we have the rodeo, and it goes until 10 p.m., and then we might have barrel racing slack after. Then, we come back the next morning and start it all over.” And judging requires attention to detail and great concentration. “You know when to get tuned in,” Gibbs said. “Most of the long days are almost always timed events, so when the guy gets ready to compete from the time he rides into the box to the completion of the run, 100% of your attention has to be on there. You can kind of let down a little bit between the runs and then there it goes again. When I walk into an arena, I know I have to pay attention and be fully prepared for whatever happens and feel

PRCA ProRodeo file photo George Gibbs has been judging and officiating at PRCA rodeos since 1980.

confident and trust in yourself.” Cliff Overstreet, who has been a ProRodeo judge with Gibbs since 2001, praised his friend’s talent. “As a judge, he’s probably the most prepared judge going into a rodeo as anybody we have,” Overstreet said. “He’s really good about thinking through issues and problems and potential problems before they ever happen and heads things off. He’s one of the best I have ever seen in that. I love judging with him, and he’s a big part of the judges we have now because of his knowledge.” Gibbs, who has lived in Maxwell, Iowa, the last 27 years, also knows not everybody is going to be happy with the judges. “You know you’re not going to be perfect, you know you’re going to make mistakes,” he said. “You have to pick yourself up, and if you make a mistake you have to suck it up and admit to it. You strive to be 100% and you have to be confident in what you see and what you’re going to mark down, and you have to be fully prepared.” Gibbs said he judges 20 to 25 rodeos a year. “That doesn’t sound like a lot, but we are gone virtually 180 days a year because we have some rodeos that have two full days of slack and then the rodeo is Saturday and Sunday,” he said. Gibbs has judged at the National Finals Rodeo 37 times. “When we judged at Oklahoma City, not even all the Wrangler Pro Officials got to officiate, it was limited,” Gibbs said. “Once we moved (the Finals) to Vegas (in 1985), all the Pro Officials were involved in the judging. Now, it has changed because we have so many more jobs to do.”

ProRodeo Sports News 1/24/2020

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