ProRodeo Sports News - Nov. 1, 2019

Bullfighter achieves lifelong goal with Finals nod IN HIS WORDS EVAN ALLARD

W hen they finally called and said, ‘Congratulations, you’ve been selected to work the NFR,’ I remember throwing a fist pump. It finally happened. Every little kid that played pretend rodeo in the yard has dreamed of rodeoing at the NFR, and finally I’m going. It set in instantly, and it still is right now. I’m glad that it’s still a month away. I don’t want to lose this feeling. I know the minute we get to Vegas, in the blink of an eye it’ll be over. It’s definitely worth the wait. If the rodeo would’ve started the day they called me, it would be over, and that wouldn’t have been any fun. If there’s anything to preparing, in my opinion, for an event like this, it’s like preparing two teams to go to the Super Bowl – they’ve played all year long, they’re in shape, they know what they’re doing, they’ve been doing it all their life, just like I’ve been fighting bulls all my life. Nothing really changes physically. What I think is going to separate guys not just this year but forever – like the quarterback that goes to four straight Super Bowls and never wins and the quarterback that wins every time he goes – are you ready mentally and emotionally for that stage? Fighting bulls is fighting bulls, but fighting bulls at that stage is a whole lot different from a Wednesday-night rodeo where you’ve got rain and cold and there are 50 people in the crowd. I grew up in the country. My grandpa was a cattleman.

I had cowboys inmy family but not rodeo cowboys. Rodeo was nothing that any of my immediate family had any background in. We have a ProRodeo in Vinita, and every year my family and I would go to the rodeo. Usually we wouldn’t get to stay until the bull riding on Wednesday andThursday becauseMommakes you go to bed. But Friday and Saturday I’d sure stay. All I wanted to do was be the rodeo clown. I

Bullfighter Evan Allard is heading to his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Dec. 5-14. Born and raised in Vinita, Okla., the 30-year-old has been working toward that first performance under the lights in the Thomas &Mack nearly his entire life. Though his family didn’t have a ProRodeo background, Allard grew up wanting to do nothing but be a rodeo clown and bullfighter. He’s evolved from starting as a freestyle bullfighter to becoming one of the best bullfighters in the PRCA. Next month, he’ll join Cody Webster and Dusty Tuckness in protecting the Top 15 bull riders in the sport’s biggest-paying rodeo. This year, he also started Hookin A Ag Air, a crop-dusting business he runs when he’s not rodeoing during the summer.

didn’t know there was a difference between the rodeo clown and the bullfighter. I was a kid. I didn’t even know one was wearing the microphone. All I knewwas I wanted to be out there telling jokes andmessing with the bulls. As I started learning the difference between the bullfighter and rodeo clown, I happened to have what it take physically, athletically to be a bullfighter. It seems like all the good rodeo clowns started as bullfighters and worked their way into the clown position. Fromwhat few people I knew that knew anything about it said that’s the route I needed to go. So, I started fighting bulls, and here I am. Cody and Dusty signed for my PRCA permit. I filled my permit the first year, and late in that year I got the Fort Worth (Texas) Stock Show and Rodeo and Rodeo Austin a year into my career. That’s when I knew I made the right decision to quit my job and pursue my career to fight bulls. Every day I get to live a vacation, to an extent. I get to travel around, I’m not tied to a 9-to-5 job. I get to travel and vacation to make my living doing what I love to do.

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ProRodeo Sports News 11/1/2019

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