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The Last Rodeo

© Diana Rowe Martinez

Although rodeo has been around almost as long as dirt, the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) has a more recent history. The first National Finals Rodeo was held at the Dallas State Fair Grounds in 1959, and since then, has undergone some interesting changes.

The NFR is said to have been the brainchild of South Dakota's legendary Casey Tibbs. The idea behind the first NFR was to bring together the world's greatest rodeo athletes and the toughest and rankest livestock. Famous cowboy heroes competing at that rodeo were Tibbs, Jim Shoulders, Jack Buschbom, Jim Bynum and Dean Oliver.

Since this was the first world championship held, no one knew what to expect but hoped for the best. The cowboys entered to claim the first NFR purse of $50,000 and do some rodeo-ing. And this first NFR set the high paced, fast pitched, rocking rodeos that we see today.

Shoulders, still considered the most successful cowboy with 16 world titles, placed in six bull riding rounds in '59, whisking away the NFR winnings and world championships. In 1979, he was honored as part of the inaugural class of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Placing sixth, Tibbs rode in his final saddle bronc riding world championship in that first NFR. Most memorable is he was the first cowboy to capture the attention of the media, and his attendance at the NFR beget national coverage of the event. He, too, was inducted into the Hall of Fame, with the added honor of the museum's signature statue -- a 20-footer of Tibbs riding the bronc Necktie.

The first round of the 1959 NFR's bareback riding went to Buschbom, who went on to claim the NFR average crown and the world title. Twenty years later, he laid claim to an induction into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame.

For many years, NFR flourished, spending a few years in L.A. and then 20 in Oklahoma City. Cowboys still worked toward the Last Rodeo, but the media and purses didn't hit pay dirt (or should we say blackjack) until 1985 when NFR moved to Las Vegas. The NFR always had a sense of appeal to those cowboy athletes, a culmination of their year of hard work, wrapped up into one neat little rodeo. With the move to Vegas, the appeal doubled -- in the form of prize money to $1.8 million.

Perhaps the most unpredictably exciting event in that first Vegas rodeo was the performance of rookie calf roper Joe Beaver. Few knew of him before that week, but once the week was up with a roll of Vegas luck, Beaver claimed the world-championship to become one of the most well known cowboys in rodeo.

Joe Beaver at Greeley

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