ProRodeo Sports News - August 2, 2019

BEST EVER?

gold buckle not only in the all-around, but in both tie-down and team roping as well. Add in steer roping, which isn’t contested at the NFR but does crown a world champion each season, and Brazile had a triple-crown season in 2007, too, claiming titles in all-around, tie-down roping and steer roping. Those two years are about as good as any cowboy could ever hope to have, which makes it difficult for Brazile to say 2018 was his best or most memo- rable. But it’s certainly right there in the conversation, if for no other reason than he went out on top, with season earnings of $335,680. “For me personally, my triple-crown years kind of trump most other ac- complishments. But there’s only one first time and one last time,” Brazile says. “The finality of the whole 10 days, it just made it completely differ- ent. There are no do-overs.” In the 10th and final go-round of his 18th NFR appearance, Brazile was fighting to hold off his brother-in- law, Tuf Cooper, for the all-around crown. Brazile needed no worse than a 7.4-second effort in tie-down roping to clinch the title. He unleashed a 7.2- second clocking to win the go-round and cement his legacy. “My first title and my last title came down to my last go-rounds,” Brazile says, alluding to the first of his 24 gold buckles, the 2002 all-around title. “This last one is so special. I looked around a lot more, slowed down and took it all in. I didn’t want to forget anything about it, so I made a conscious effort to not just go through the motions. “I couldn’t have written it any better. Coming down to my last round, THE MORE TIMES YOU GO TO VEGAS, THE BETTER YOU GET AT VEGASING!

Trevor Brazile earning a “ride-off” All Around title was one reason why Shawn Davis believes 2018 might have been the best NFR ever

BEST EVER?

... Speaking of best of all time, when the topic of greatest cowboy in his- tory come up, Trevor Brazile’s name will forever be one of the first men- tioned. And the 2018 NFR marked the storybook end of a spectacular career. Brazile started the week by an- nouncing that 2018 would be his final season of full-time competitive rodeo, then ended the week by nabbing his 14th all-around world championship, giving him 24 world titles overall. Just how dominant was Brazile’s run? In 2010, he rode his Wrangler NFR efforts to a triple crown, winning the

RODEO EXPERTS CONCUR THAT THE 2018 WRANGLER NFR WAS AMONG THE MOST MEMORABLE OF ALL TIME By Patrick Everson

“When you’re in my position, you look at it in several different ways,” Davis says. “For the last 30-something years, I’ve always been concerned with improving [the NFR] from a fan and spectator standpoint. This past year, in my opinion, taking everything into consideration, I think it was the best rodeo we’d ever done.” Of course, Davis is looking at it from an organizational standpoint. But some of the world’s top cowboys and cowgirls certainly didn’t dispute Davis’ assessment.

Montana, was a 12-time Wrangler NFR qualifier and three-time world cham- pion who, after his saddle bronc-riding days, went on to serve as a judge for the rodeo, then was president of the Profes- sional Rodeo Cowboys Association. And that was all before 1985, when the Wrangler NFR made the momen- tous move from Oklahoma City to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Soon after, Davis became the NFR’s general manager, a position he held through 2018 before moving on to more of a consulting role.

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n 2018 the Wrangler NFR was loaded with memorable mo- ments from front to back—so memorable that it just might go down as the greatest NFR in history. And while some of the sport’s most influential experts landed on both sides of the “best-of-all-time” argu-

ment, there definitely is one consensus opinion: If the 2018 NFR wasn’t the best ever, it was darn close. It can be pretty safely argued that nobody has more history with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo than Shawn Davis. The native of Butte,

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Photo: Tom Donoghue. P