Greetings from the 50th Wrangler National Finals in Las Vegas! As of this writing on Tuesday morning, Dec. 9, I can tell you that this 10-day event is alive with celebrations commemorating the 50th year that professional rodeo has held the finals.
On the streets, at the rodeo and at the gift shows, rodeo fans are sporting apparel that marks the anniversary with the officially licensed PRCA 50th logo — a large gold and black buckle prominently displaying the number 50. There are the black poly-cotton jackets with leather sleeves as the official wear, brown distressed leather jackets with the RodeoVegas logo, t-shirts, sweat shirts, key chains, vests and all kinds of apparel available for fans to take home as a souvenir of this occasion! For my part, I continued with my tradition of bringing home a silver Christmas tree ornament for each year K.C. has qualified — I’m sure I’ll buy more!
As small-town country folks who like to avoid the traffic, hubby and I arrive at least an hour early at Thomas and Mack, browse the “Cowboy Corral” where sponsors display their wares and live country western music competes with jet noise overhead. As soon as the doors open, we find our seats, and during that hour-long time period, I’ve enjoyed the pre-show where lots of historical tidbits and video footage is shown of famous contestants, outstanding rides/timed event runs and replays of records set. Along with that, there is special footage (much of it black and white, of course) of famous rodeo contestants throughout the years all of which is eventually followed by the opening ceremonies and the spectacular laser light show.
Listening to factoids repeated each evening on the huge “jumbotron” screen has been a great way to review the history of our beloved sport, like the decision to hold the first national finals in 1959 in Dallas with team roping, steer roping and barrel racing held in Clayton, N.M. Or another interesting fact given — the first purse was $50,000 compared to the $5.6 million today, or the interesting tidbit that one year Tuf Hedeman rode his bull for eight seconds, then rode it for another eight seconds to honor his dear friend Lane Frost who had died riding a bull in Cheyenne.
A then-unknown Reba McIntyre sang the national anthem in 1974, and we were thrilled as she repeated the performance Saturday night before the sold-out crowd of over 17,000 fans at the rodeo. Reba has graciously lent her stardom to the 50th by providing some of the pre-show historical information and appearing at “The Big Round-Up” to present awards. Billed as the largest “handshake” gathering in the history of pro-rodeo, this event was held at the Orleans Arena where any and all who wanted to gather could meet with old friends and remember the good times of the past. Events included opening ceremonies, Red Steagall-Pro Rodeo and the West, Miss Rodeo America appearance, a luncheon with a history of pro-rodeo shown, a western academy awards and memorials presentation, an auction and a special showing of the 1959 NFR film.
As I descended the 40 some steps down into the Orleans arena, I was struck by the noise and hubbub of this lively, excited group of special people (mostly gray haired) who have been the backbone of establishing this great rodeo sport. It truly was the “great handshake” as rodeo’s history-makers reacquainted themselves with each other. I was particularly thrilled to photograph the “Class of 59” NFR contestants since they were the heroes and idols of my generation.
It’s no wonder contestants greeted the move from Oklahoma City (where the NFR was held for 20 years) to Las Vegas in 1985 since the prize money jumped from $900,000 to $1.8 million. That first year, Las Vegas had 53,000 hotel rooms with 14 million visitors visiting the city annually — today there are 135,000 hotel rooms and more than 39 million visitors coming each year, and the WNFR has a non-gaming economic impact on Las Vegas of $60.6 million dollars. We understand that 100,000 Las Vegasites have been laid off during the past few months due to the economic downturn, and the entire city is more than thrilled to have the cowboys and their fans come to town since attendance is expected to exceed 174,000 this year throughout the 10 days.
As we prepare for the sixth go-around, we’re mindful of how far rodeo has come and we’re so proud to be a small part of it. Some say the contestants are “better” than those first champions but that’s certainly a matter of perspective. It would seem those pioneer contestant’s situations were much less predictable and much more uncomfortable. The bucking stock certainly wasn’tbred and “trained” like today’s, the calves and steers weighed considerably more (just looking at the footage proves that), and we know they didn’t arrive at the NFR $200,000 rodeo rigs with many of the comforts of home, let alone stay in such plush hotels. We know they didn’t have the benefits of schools and clinics given by the greats of the sport nor the expertise of the health professionals like the Justin Healers. We all know today’s competitors are much more savvy with more highly developed skill levels, plus they’re more mentally and physically conditioned. They have to be — what with 10 to 20 times more competitors making it their career, bucking stock bred for the ultimate, and timed event records nearly impossible to break.
Yet we can all agree with Bill Etbauer’s statement “it’s an honor and a blessing every time you get to the NFR …” and we’re proud our son K.C. has been able to be a part of it all. Even though a broken horn in Round 2 took him out of the average and a steer who had a reputation of running hell-bent to the end of the arena suddenly set up on him in Round 4 resulting in crash and a sore back, we’re hopeful he can earn a little of the prize money during the next five rounds. And if not — then it was just great to be here and be a small part of this historical 50th anniversary!
So here’s to you and yours as we all continue to travel down the historical rodeo road.
Las Vegas, Nev. —
