ProRodeo Sports News - November 17, 2023

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Keynote Speaker

BY THE NUMBERS 3 The number of cowboys who have won more than $3 million in career earnings who are competing at the 2023 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge, Dec. 7-16 in Las Vegas at the Thomas & Mack Center. The list consists of tie down roper Tuf Cooper ($3,318,979); bull rider Sage Kimzey ($3,192,614); and saddle bronc rider/ bull rider Stetson Wright ($3,013,206). The trio has combined to win 18 PRCA World Championships – Cooper (4, Tie-down, 2011-12, 2014 and all-around, 2017); Kimzey (7, 2014-19, 2021) and Wright (7, All Around, 2019-22) (Bull riding, 2020, 2022); and (Saddle bronc riding 2021). 4 The number of team roping heelers competing at the 2023 Wrangler NFR who have $2 million-plus in career earnings. The list consists of Patrick Smith ($2,473,078); Jake Long ($2,320,351); Junior Nogueira ($2,281,917); and Paul Eaves ($2,002,891).

Country music star Cody Johnson to address attendees at PRCA Convention

Superstar country singer

Cody Johnson will be the keynote speaker at the 2023 PRCA Convention in Las Vegas. Johnson will address convention attendees at the Grand Ballroom at the South Point Hotel and Casino, Wednesday, Dec. 6 at 11 a.m. (PT). The gathering of PRCA members precedes the biggest event on ProRodeo’s annual calendar, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge at the Thomas & Mack Center in Vegas, Dec. 7-16. The theme for this year’s convention is From Ordinary to Legendary, and Johnson will address attendees on his career journey from humble beginnings to platinum-selling artist.

Johnson

Clay Guardipee photo

were meant to do it. When I had to give it up, it really made me jaded. It made me bitter because I hated failure. I didn’t realize that failure is really what made me draw and drive toward music. “I thought about (team roping header, the 2020 PRCA World Champion) Colby Lovell’s story and realized if I hadn’t gone through the failure of bull riding and turned to music and demanded to be a cowboy and kept roping and riding then it wouldn’t have made it into my music and I wouldn’t have written that song and it wouldn’t have impacted Colby that way. That’s a bigger picture of ‘Dear Rodeo’ than my failure of bull riding.” In April, Johnson won Performance of The Year at the 2022 CMT Music Award for his performance of “’Til You Can’t.” As in prior years, the convention will feature the State of the PRCA address from CEO Tom Glause, which will be 8:30 a.m. (PT), Dec. 5, at the South Point, as well as the PRCA Member Tradeshow. The PRCA National Convention will run from Dec. 4-7.

Johnson is no stranger to the NFR. Before Round 10 at the 2020 Wrangler NFR at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, Johnson played before the start of Round 10. Playing that song at the Finals also meant something to Johnson. “It was a pretty special moment,” Johnson said in the March 2021 article in the ProRodeo Sports News . “It was a full-circle moment for me.” Johnson gave fans a deeper look into his life and career with the documentary “Dear Rodeo,” which includes his duet partner, country superstar Reba McEntire. In the trailer, Johnson reminisces about dreaming of being a cowboy. “My younger years, I wanted to ride bulls,” Johnson told ProRodeo Sports News. “I was very set on having those gold buckle dreams. I poured my heart into it, but at the end of the day it was not what I was meant to do. I got a little bit done here and there, but I wasn’t like my friends who

ProRodeo Sports News 11/17/2023

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