ProRodeo Sports News - Sept. 29, 2023

Beaver claims first all-around title; Garrett captures championship No. 4 ’95 NFR Rewind

FROM PRCA’S 50TH NFR BOOK F ive of the nine PRCA World Standings leaders heading into the 1995 National Finals Rodeo dodged upsets and left Las Vegas with world titles. Among them was Joe Beaver, the five-time calf roping world champ from Huntsville, Texas, who left not with a calf roping title, but with his first all-around championship. When roughstock all-arounder Ty Murray was sidelined with a knee injury in June, the 30-year-old Beaver quickly took command of the all-around race by earning money in team roping and calf roping. Beaver qualified for the Finals only in calf roping and nabbed four NFR go-round checks for $36,928 to beat six-time calf roping titlist Roy Cooper by $32,000 for the coveted all-around buckle.

Davis finished third in the round and won the average title with 736 points on nine bulls. Saddle bronc rider Dan Etbauer entered the Finals leading his event and in prime position to clinch his first world championship. But Etbauer was bucked off three of his first five NFR broncs and placed out of the money on those he did cover. In the meantime, two-time and defending World Champion Dan Mortensen was spurring his way to a second-place average finish and a $57,517 NFR payoff. Mortensen’s total of $145,325 was about $27,000 more than Etbauer’s second-place total. Cajun steer wrestler Mike Smith also lost his regular-season lead at the Finals. A knee injury in the sixth round forced Smith to sit out the last four rounds. Ote Berry, the three-time world champ from Checotah, Okla., took command, turfing 10 steers in 74.6 seconds to finish second in the average race to NFR newcomer Rooster Reynolds, the son of ProRodeo Hall of Fame all-around hand Benny Reynolds. Berry finished 1995 with $117,987 and a fourth world title. An important new twist took place in the team roping competition at the 1995 NFR. For the first time, the world standings were split into heading and heeling categories, allowing the Top 15 ropers on each end – 30 team ropers total – to qualify for the Finals. Former World Champions Bobby Hurley and Allen Bach dominated the first half of the 10-round NFR, winning three rounds and placing in two others. Hurley, a header from Ceres, Calif., and Bach, a heeler from Toltec, Ariz., placed fourth in the average race with an 82.4-second showing on 10 steers. Each roper earned $36,467 at the NFR and left Las Vegas with the world championship in his respective category. For the third time in four years, steer roper Arnold Felts sped to the average victory at the National Finals Steer Roping in Guthrie, Okla. But, once again, even a flawless Finals performance wasn’t enough to surpass the season earnings mark of Guy Allen, 37, who finished 1995 with his 10th world title.

When the NFR opened, Beaver also was in contention for the world calf roping title, trailing 1991 world champ Fred Whitfield by only $2,906. But Beaver earned checks in just four rounds and finished eighth in the average race. Whitfield was penalized for broken barriers in Rounds 4 and 8, but hung onto his pre-NFR lead throughout the NFR. He finished third in the average race to take his 1995 NFR total to $58,184 and make world title No. 2 a reality. Three-time World Champion Bareback Rider Marvin Garrett entered the Finals leading his event with $94,713 – a figure that narrowly eclipsed Bruce Ford’s 13-year-old record for regular-season earnings as a bareback rider. But Garrett’s work had just begun. The 32-year-old South Dakota cowboy placed in each of the last six NFR rounds to earn $62,020 and a fourth world title. Garrett’s year-end earnings totaled $156,733 – another PRCA record in bareback riding. Also highlighting the NFR bareback riding action was a 90-point matchup between Canadian Billy Laye and the 1995 PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year, Brown Bomber of the Beutler Brothers and Cervi string. The mark erased Larry Peabody’s 1981 NFR bareback riding record of 89 points. Sherry Cervi of Marana, Ariz., entered the 1995 Finals leading all NFR contestants with more than $129,500 in regular-season winnings. Cervi, riding her two geldings, Trouble and Hawk, continued her money-winning momentum at the NFR. She placed in four rounds and finished fourth in the average race to collect $27,588 and a world championship. History was made in bull riding as North Carolina’s Jerome Davis, 23, became the first cowboy living east of the Mississippi River to claim a PRCA bull riding world title. Davis, a resident of Archdale, N.C., won Rounds 2 and 4 and placed in three more rounds to hold onto his regular-season lead. The championship was ultimately decided when Davis stuck to his 10th round draw, Bad Company Rodeo’s The Jam, for 84 points.

An important new twist took place in the team roping competition at the 1995 NFR. For the first time, the world standings were split into heading and heeling categories, allowing the Top 15 ropers on each end – 30 team ropers total – to qualify for the Finals.

ProRodeo Sports News 9/29/2023

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