ProRodeo Sports News - June 23, 2022

Champs swap roping partners World champion team ropers have swapped partners. Clay Smith, who won the PRCA Team Roping 2019 through May of the 2022 season. Smith did rope some with Long in 2019 before teaming up with Corkill. “Jake and I decided to rope together recently,

BY THE NUMBERS $79K The amount of money ($79,977) earned by tie-down roper Tuf Cooper when he was the top timed-event earner in Cowboy Christmas in 2014-15 and 2021. The 2022 Cowboy Christmas runs consists of 34 rodeos, beginning between June 27 and ending July 5. $500K The record purse of the 2022 National Finals Steer Roping, Nov. 4-5 at the Kansas Star in Mulvane. The NFSR purse has more than doubled since 2014. $730K The estimated payout of the 2022 Reno (Nev.) Rodeo, which began June 17 and concludes June 25. That payout would be a record, breaking the mark of $679,521 paid out in 2021 in Reno. ONLINE: For full ProRodeo results, go online at www. prorodeo.com

Header World Championships in 2018 and 2019, is now roping with heeler Jake Long, an 11-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier. Meanwhile, Clay Tryan, a three-time PRCA Team Roping Header World Champion in 2005, 2013-14, is reuniting with Jade Corkill. Corkill was Tryan’s partner in 2013-15, and 2017, and Corkill was the PRCA Team Roping Heeler World Champion in 2013 and 2014. Tryan roped with Long in 2020-21 and they both qualified for the NFR each season. Smith and Corkill roped together for most of Bull rider Ernie Courson Jr. was having the best season of his career – then the Reno (Nev.) Rodeo Xtreme Bulls happened June 16. During the short round, Courson was aboard All In Pro Rodeos’ Regulator when the bull leaped out of the chute and pulled Courson down, smashing his face against the bull’s hump. “Honestly I can’t really tell you,” Courson said when asked what happened. “I don’t remember nodding and I woke up and my wife was telling me ‘wake up baby.’ I woke up and I looked around and I was in the hospital, and I thought how did I get here? She

and we know each other,” Smith said. “The plan is for Jake and I to win world championships. I’m roping with Jake starting in Reno.” Smith is 10th in the PRCA | RAM World Standings and Long is second. Tryan is second in the world standings and Corkill is 11th. Tryan has qualified for the NFR 19 times. Tryan and Corkill started roping again at the Parker County Sheriff’s Posse Frontier Days and PRCA Rodeo in Weatherford, Texas, June 8-11. told me I got knocked out and broke a few bones in my face.” Courson, who is 10th in the PRCA | RAM World Standings with $51,732, did analyze the ride after watching it on video. Courson is optimistic he will be able to return to compete at the NFR Open powered by RAM, July 13-16 in Colorado Springs, Colo. “This is probably my worst wreck, having multiple fractures,” Courson said. “I want to make the NFR so I’m going to heal up. From now on, I’m going to ride with a helmet.”

Courson out after X-Bulls injury

Davis inducted into Southern Nevada Hall Shawn Davis has had many honors

came when the decision I was faced with (as the president of the PRCA) to move the NFR,” Davis said. “No matter which way I went I had a large group that wasn’t going to be in favor of the move. The third year when all those seats were sold, I think that was probably the highlight of my rodeo career.” Davis, a three-time PRCA World Champion Saddle Bronc Rider in 1965,

during his decorated rodeo career and he added another one June 17. Davis was inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev. Davis gained his rodeo notoriety

Davis in Nevada by serving as the general manager of the National Finals Rodeo from 1986-2018. Davis was a major proponent of moving the NFR from Oklahoma City, Okla., to Las Vegas. “The most exciting time of my rodeo career

1967-68, was inducted into the inaugural class of the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

ProRodeo Sports News 6/24/2022

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