ProRodeo Sports News - August 2, 2019

ANNOUNCERS

March 3 - 22, 2020 RODEOHOUSTON ® rodeohouston.com • #RODEOHOUSTON

IT’S THE GREATEST RODEO ON THE PLANET, AND THERE’S A REASON WHY,” SAYS ROGER MOONEY. “IT’S A LABOR OF LOVE, AND A PERSON REALLY HAS TO BEAR DOWN, BECAUSE WHEN IT’S THE SUPER BOWL, ALL EYES ARE ON YOU, AND IT’S THE CREAM OF THE CROP. WHEN THE LIGHTS COME ON IN LAS VEGAS, EVERYBODY NEEDS TO SHINE.

“When you go to Las Vegas, you just turn the heat up on the gas a little bit more because those are the most veteran fans in the world,” says Brooks, a five-time PRCA Announcer of the Year who has been selected to announce the prestigious rodeo eight times. “You work hard to make sure that event comes off without a hitch and is exciting and fun, and you just take it to another level. Feeling the intensity that is brought on by, ‘Wow, this is it! We’re really here,’ is felt across the board.” One thing is for certain: Whether they’re calling the action at the Thomas & Mack Center for the first time or the 18th, the experience never gets old. “There is absolutely no other rodeo like it,” says Corley, who an- nounced the Wrangler NFR for the 18th time in 2018. “It’s a rush to get to watch world-title battles unfold over 10 days.” Last year, Mooney of Ellijay, Georgia, got the chance to announce the rodeo from start to finish for the first time after serving as an alternate in 2000 and 2004. “It’s the greatest rodeo on the planet, and there’s a reason why,” says Mooney, who has been a professional rodeo announcer for more than 30 years. “It’s a labor of love, and a person really has to bear down, because when it’s the Super Bowl, all eyes are on you,

and it’s the cream of the crop. When the lights come on in Las Vegas, every- body needs to shine.” As fun, exciting and prestigious as it is to work behind the mic at the NFR, make no mistake, it’s also an extremely challenging job that brings with it a lot of responsibility. “It’s the hardest rodeo you’ll ever work,” says Corley, a 2017 ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee and 12-time PRCA Announcer of the Year. “And it’s not just the 10 days, because you go in there on Sunday the week before, and your meetings start the next morning. It’s a survival course in announcing, and I think sometimes just walking out of there surviving makes you a winner.” The talent and expertise needed to announce the epic Vegas rodeo isn’t lost on seasoned announcers from other sports who also honeymoon as rodeo fans and admirers. “To most of us, a rodeo is an eight- second hurricane gale, but the rodeo announcer has to stay calm in the

storm, so to speak, and observe not only the rider but the animal and only experience, which gives way to instinct, makes that possible” says Ron McLean, longtime voice of Hockey Night in Canada and also host of the Canadian Broadcasting Company coverage of the Calgary Stampede, a Canadian rodeo and Western lifestyle tradition. “Inex- perience narrows the scope, but experience widens the gaze and the top rodeo announcers have a wide gaze. For some reason, to me, the risk of figure skating and rodeo are similar … one is a ballet on ice wearing knives and I think rodeo is a ballet on dirt while performing death-defying acts. There is a saying in skating that works for rodeo and announcing, ‘trust is when you give up what you know for what you feel.’ And to be at the top of the game, a rodeo announcer has to rely on years of experience and hundreds and hundreds of rodeos to make those split-second calls that become the stuff of legend. They just have a sense and a feel that can’t be taught, only earned.”

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Photos: James Phifer.