ProRodeo Sports News - October 30, 2020

WRANGLER NATIONAL FINALS RODEO

A reporter’s view to what it’s like covering the Finals Inside the NFR Photo courtesy Brett Hoffman Reporter Brett Hoffman interviews Trevor Brazile at the Thomas & Mack Center sometime during the early 2000s.

Brett Hoffman has covered rodeos, horse shows and Western sports events for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram since 1984. He also writes a weekly column that runs in newspapers such as the Amarillo Globe News and the Lubbock Avalanche- Journal.

BY BRETT HOFFMAN, Guest Column I n the world of ProRodeo over the past 35 years, my role has been covering the sport for newspapers, mainly the Fort Worth Star-Telegram . When the National Finals Rodeo was moved from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas in 1985, I was a cub reporter. I well remember covering the 1985 NFR and Lewis Feild becoming the first roughstock rider in 12 years to clinch the all-around world title. I also remember writing about Charmayne James winning a round at the ’85 NFR despite her bridle breaking down as her superstar horse, Scamper, was entering the arena at theThomas &Mack Center. Scamper caught his bridle on the gate, which dislodged the Chicago screws that kept the bridle intact. When Charmayne and Scamper rounded the third barrel, the gelding spit the bit out of his mouth causing the bridle to drop to his chest. But Scamper remained intensely focused and made the run like nothing had happened. When I asked Charmayne about it, she said it showed how much Scamper loved to run barrels. Over the years, most of the NFR performances have been conducted during the evening hours. But when a performance

was held during the evening in Las Vegas, writing a game story and making a late-night deadline for a Texas newspaper was challenging. The rodeo would begin at 7 p.m. and end around 9 p.m. Pacific Time. But in the Central Time Zone where Fort Worth is located, it was two hours later. That means the rodeo would start at about 9 p.m. and would conclude about 11 p.m. in north Texas. I would have to write the story running throughout the performance and have it close to being finished by the end of the show. If anything newsworthy happened late in the performance in events such as tie-down roping or barrel racing, it was a bigger challenge to write much on it for the Fort Worth newspaper. A prime example came in 1997 when the NFR tie-down roping record was broken three times in one night. Going into the performance, the record was 7.3 seconds. But it was subsequently broken by Blair Burk (7.0), FredWhitfield (6.9) and Jeff Chapman (6.8). I was writing a running game story that night and I

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