RON GULLBERG Star-Tribune online editor | Posted: Sunday, June 15, 2008 12:00 am
The College National Finals Rodeo staggered into Casper in June 1999 suffering an identity crisis, inner turmoil and financial instability.
After more than two decades in Bozeman, Mont., the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association took its grand finale to Rapid City, S.D., for what would be a nearly disastrous two-year run. The promise of lucrative sponsorship revenue and ticket sales never materialized.
Today marks the start of the 10th consecutive CNFR held in Casper - perhaps one of the most unlikeliest of homes for the "Rose Bowl of Rodeo."
Casper is tucked in the middle of the least-populated state in the union. The nearest major city is a four-hour drive away, and none of the Denver sports media corps has ever set foot inside the Casper Events Center.
But the people of Casper offer intangibles that never dawned on the folks in Rapid City: volunteerism, innovation, ownership, enthusiasm and can-do attitudes.
Sponsorship revenue and final-night ticket sales increased annually over the CNFR's first nine seasons in Casper. Countless individuals and businesses and the Casper and Natrona County governments lent in-kind and financial support.
The result? Last year, the NIRA extended its CNFR contract with the city and county through 2012.
Ultimately, any entertainment vehicle is only as good as its content. For rodeo fans, that means plenty of thrills, chills and spills. It only gets better when there are home-state heroes with which to celebrate victory or absorb defeat.
So much of rodeo is the luck of the draw. Place the pursuit of a national championship on top of that and it forms compelling drama: hunger, fury, despair and joy. In that sense, the CNFR and Casper are a perfect match.
In the land of harsh winters and forgiving summers, boom-bust cycles and fierce debates over wolves and brucellosis, the CNFR serves as a reminder that in life, no matter how hard you prepare, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you get hosed.
The CNFR has found a loving home in Casper and here are 10 unforgettable reasons why:
1. 1999: Farrell "bulls" them over
In their first year as hosts, Casper fans were treated to many thrilling moments during a wild and wooly Saturday-night finale. But it wasn't until the third-to-last ride of the rodeo that they were able to revel in a local hero's success.
Thermopolis native Will Farrell had reached the 8-second buzzer on two of three bulls entering the short go, but the Chadron (Neb.) State College freshman still needed a qualified ride to have any hope of winning the title.
Farrell drew a good one: Harry Vold's Copenhagen 7. The animal busted from the chute, covered little ground and descended into a tight, thunderous spin. The fans rose to their feet, cheering louder with each turn of the bull.
About two-thirds of the way into the ride, trouble ensued. Copenhagen 7 jerked the rope from Farrell's hand, but the cowboy managed to catch the tail of the slack and frantically hold on. He spent the remaining 2 seconds dangling from the side of the bull before being tossed.
"It was a lot of try and perseverance just to get to the whistle," Farrell said this week. "… It was just a really exciting time in my life because it was a hometown deal and I went into it expecting to win it, and I did win it. Most things in life don't happen that way."
Farrell's national championship solidified Casper's adoption of the CNFR. Nine years later, Farrell still experiences chills while talking about the audience's reaction.
"I don't hear them when I'm riding but I remember how loud they were afterwards, and when I took my victory lap around the arena," he said. "That's just a memory that's stamped in forever. I don't think if I got Alzheimer's that I'd ever forget that."
Farrell won again in 2001 but the moment almost seemed anti-climatic. He entered the short go first in the overall standings after having ridden all three of his bulls. When the first 11 contestants failed to reach 8 seconds in the short go, Farrell was crowned champion even before nodding his head. He got bucked off in the finale.
2. 2007: Nelson leads Cowgirls to title
It took eight years, but a Cowboy State school finally secured a team championship in Casper when Kayla Nelson defended her goat tying title and spurred the Wyoming Cowgirls to victory.
"That place was so loud and I really feed off of that," she said this week. " … You feel like you have all those people supporting you and that's such a huge high for me. I remember them announcing my name and then I don't remember hearing anything. Then I made my run and got my time and I heard the crowd again, and it was so loud. I get goose bumps thinking about it."
Nelson's and the Cowgirls' victories were especially pleasing for UW coach George Howard, who spent 10 seasons fielding the same question from fans: "When are you going to win a team championship?"
"I said, 'Man alive, she did it twice in a row,'" Howard said with a chuckle this week. "How many times is that going to happen in the history of this event?"
3. 2003: Eubank rides pretty in pink
Chad Eubank's only CNFR qualification will be remembered for two things: flawless bull riding and pink shirts.
The Hill College contestant is the only roughstock rider thus far to win or tie for the lead in all four rounds at a single Casper CNFR. The native of Cleburne, Texas, won the national championship with 328.5 points - an average of 82 per ride.
Eubank returned to college rodeo as a senior with one goal in mind: to claim the men's all-around title and the professional rodeo sponsorship that came with it. Eubank failed to score any placing points in bareback riding and had to settle for one of the most impressive bull riding performances in rodeo history - at any level.
"It means a lot. It don't mean as much to me as what I came here for, but I'm not going to give it back," Eubank said with a wry grin after his winning ride.
4. 2003: Levi's 5.50 wins bulldogging title
The Wyoming Cowboys were in contention for the program's first team championship since 1961 when Levi Wisness broke from the timed-event chute, wrestled his steer in 5.5 seconds and took home an individual championship.
UW went on to finish second that night, but what a memorable night it was.
"One of the very neat things about it was it was for the University of Wyoming and the college finals were in Wyoming," Wisness said this week. "There was a lot of support from the people in the Casper area. It was just one of those stepping stones in life."
Wisness placed fourth in the short go and fifth overall the year before. In 2003, he earned the Cowboys' first individual title since 1996.
Wisness was remarkably consistent in both of his CNFR showings. During his championship run, the Keene, N.D., native registered a combined time of 19.8 seconds on four head.
"He'd been there before," Howard said. "… The confidence level that he had, there was not a doubt in his mind he was going to do something good."
5. 2000: Shepperson boldly stands alone
Competing unattached and in the shadow of UW all-around standout Sunnie Fish, Midwest native Amy Shepperson gave the locals plenty to cheer for in the only CNFR held at The Arena at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds.
She clocked 2.9 seconds in the breakaway roping short go to claim the Cowgirls' first individual title since 1995. It was also the first Casper CNFR championship for an in-state female contestant.
Shepperson had qualified for the CNFR based on her regular-season performance. But so many UW contestants advanced that year, Howard opted to leave her out of the field. None came close to Shepperson's success.
"I try to use my crystal ball as best I can but sometimes it gets a little cloudy," Howard said of his decision.
Shepperson made her third and final attempt in the long go-round on a Tuesday night and anxiously watched the next three nights as her cumulative time held. Once Saturday's finals arrived, Shepperson was as unflappable as a flag on a windless day.
"When (the short go) finally arrived, I was relieved," she said. "My whole family was there watching and it was exciting for me. … That was definitely my career highlight, because after college there's not a lot available professionally for women."
6. 2002: Olsen fuels Powell pride
South Jordan, Utah, bareback rider Colby Olsen put tiny Northwest College on the rodeo map by winning the Trappers' first national championship.
Olsen earned every one of his accolades. He drew Vold's National Finals Rodeo horse named I'm A Tiger in the short go, looking like a confident veteran en route to 83 points.
"He looks a lot cooler in real life than on TV and he rides even cooler," a beaming Olsen said at the time. "He just gets in the air, really kicks hard and he just feels really good."
Olsen's victory stirred local interested in the NWC program, boosted fund-raising efforts and aided coach Del Nose's recruiting efforts.
7. 2004: Gray feels at home in Events Center
Ryan Gray's hometown was listed as Cheney, Wash., and he competed for Odessa (Texas) College. But his Wyoming roots ran deep the year he wowed the Events Center crowd with his prolific bareback riding.
Gray was born in Laramie and lived in Encampment before residing in Cheyenne through the fourth grade. After his family moved to Cheney, Gray still had an aunt, uncle and grandfather in Casper and a granddad in Cheyenne. They all were in attendance at the CNFR.
Gray set a Casper CNFR arena record with 88 points in the first round. He matched that score in the short go, sending the crowd into a frenzy during the first event of the night.
The future NFR contestant scored 330 points over four rounds in Casper, finishing an impressive 19 points ahead of runner-up Logan Hodson of Panhandle State.
8. 2001: Montero's accolades runneth over
UNLV's Suzanne Montero succeeded at nearly everything she tried at the 2001 CNFR.
The freshman sensation won three of four rounds of goat tying, capturing the championship by more than 1.6 seconds. Her run of 6.2 in the short go was the top time of the week. In fact, she recorded the top two times of the week.
Montero also was the No. 1 all-around cowgirl and the cowgirl rookie of the year. She placed fourth in breakaway roping to boot.
She returned to the top of the goat tying and women's all-around lists two years later but was never more in control than in 2001.
9. 2005: Tragedy, triumph for breakaway roper
(Compiled from reports by former Star-Tribune staff writer Peter Hockaday.)
Every decades-old culminating event needs an intriguing tale handed down from year to year, and the 57th CNFR provided just that when a horse died mysteriously and conspiracy theories followed.
While awaiting her turn in the chutes outside the Events Center during the short go, Chadron State's Jennifer Nelson grew concerned when her horse, Pickle, started acting erratic. The animal then keeled over and hit its head on the concrete. By the time veterinarian Don Cobb arrived on the scene 2 minutes later, Pickle was dead.
Twelve cowgirls competed in the short go that night and almost all of them were in the chutes when Pickle died. During the competition, five cowgirls missed their calves and three more broke the barrier. Many were crying as they exited the arena floor.
Panhandle State's Erica Brown won the short go and the national title with a 2-second run. She vaulted from seventh to first n- an unheard of leap in breakaway roping.
"It was awful," she said later. "We were all crying and we were just like, 'We've just got to go out and do it.'"
A distraught Nelson scrambled to prepare her backup horse, Rusty, and looped her calf in 4.8 seconds to finish third overall. Nelson's resolve drew comforting applause from the audience.
The controversy over Pickle's death continued into the 2006 CNFR. Both the Nelson family and Chadron State officials blamed the horse's demise on foul play n- insinuating somebody pulled a "Tonya Harding."
Numerous tests at Colorado State University and the University of Wyoming proved inconclusive. Pickle's body was rushed to Fort Collins, Colo., immediately after the rodeo. The necropsy revealed the horse died from head trauma, and no poisonous agents were found in its blood. But a CSU pathologist said there are hundreds of agents that could have caused Pickle's erratic behavior, and it would take almost as many tests to completely rule out foul play.
10. 2002: Miller has barrels of fun in upset
Oklahoma State's Janae Ward was so dominant in 2001, every other barrel racer was expected to compete for second place when the 2002 CNFR rolled around.
In one of the biggest upsets in CNFR history, however, McKenzie Miller of little Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, edged the defending champion by six-tenths of a second with a four-head time of 57.64 seconds.
Ward took the lead in her attempt for a second consecutive title with a short-go time of 14.20. Miller entered the finals as the overall leader, however, and was the last cowgirl to ride. She clocked a 14.23 and held on to the No. 1 position.
Ward won the short go, followed by Miller, but the Idaho barrel racer won the ultimate prize after a tense week of competition. Miller placed 21st in the opening round, then vaulted to the top by winning the second and third rounds.
Ron Gullberg was the Star-Tribune's sports editor from 1993-2005. He currently serves as online editor. He has covered every CNFR since 1997.