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By Paul Asay
The most prestigious award in rodeo has a pretty long official nam: World Champion All-Around Cowboy. It's a mouthful, and most people end up saying "all-around," as in "he's going for the all-around."
What they're really saying is "he wants to be THE MAN."
In the PRCA, there's no higher honor than being THE MAN. And there's no more difficult award to win than the world all-around title.
Since 1929, only 35 cowboys have earned the right to belt on the world champion all-around cowboy buckle. And in the last 12 years, one could count the number of all-around winners with a finger left over.
Cowboys have to win $3,000 in at least two events to even enter the all-around race. Many PRCA members don't earn that much cash in one event, much less in two. Last year, only 64 cowboys net those qualifications. Let's face it: That all-around buckle is one tough sucker to get. If a cowboy wants to be THE MAN, he's got to prove there's a little bit of Superman in him, as well.
Earlier this summer, Dan Mortensen of Manhattan, Mont., decided to try to become THE MAN.
THE LEADER
Already in possession of three world saddle bronc riding titles, the 28-year old cowboy picked up a bull rope for the first time since 1991, wrapped it around a bull in Innisfail, Alberta - Wayne Vold's Joker's Wild - and promptly put an 80-point score on the board.
Mortensen was on his way into the all-around hunt.
During the summer, he rode all seven bulls he climbed on. He closed out his bull riding schedule with a win at the Walla Walla (Wash.) Fair and Frontier Days rodeo - and 84-point ride on Growney Brothers Rodeo No.229 - says he won't crack out his bull rope for the rest of the year.
"I felt pretty comfortable with ir," Mortensen said. "I was pleased with how it went, and I drew some pretty good bulls."
All the while, Mortensen was riding saddle broncs with unprecedented abandon, He's had the best regular season of his career, racking up $130,868 in his marquee event. It's the most ever won by a professional rodeo athlete in one event during the regular season - and there's still another month left. Add to that Mortensen's $8,393 i bull riding earnings, and the cowboy has pocketed $139,260. Cody Ohl of Orchard, Texas, Mortensen's next closest competitor in the all-around race, has earned $103,510 this your and has $35,750 to make up between now and the last day of the National Finals Rodeo to make up the difference.
Another $33,652 back is Joe Beaver of Huntsville, texas, winner of the last two all-around titles and another five calf roping championships to boot.
Some might jump to the conclusion that Mortensen's lead, even now, is reasonably safe. Engravers might as well carve Mortensen's name in the buckle now, they reason.
Think again.
"I don't think you could have a comfortable lead going into the Finals," Mortensen said.
If anything, last year's all-around race proved there's no such thing as a sure thing going into the NFR and you're never THE MAN until the last check has been handed out.
THE DEFENDER
In 1996, Herbert Theriot was more than the all-around leader going into the Finals. He was the heir apparent to the title. Some had all but given him the buckle.
Theriot, a timed-event cowboy from Poplarville, Miss., carried a Mercedes sized lead over the rest of the all-around field. Brent Lewis, the next contestant with a bona fide chance at catching Theriot, was more than $28,000 behind. Joe Beaver, the defending all-around titlist, was a couple hundred bucks behind Lewis.
But it wasn't just the sizable lead that made theriot the odds-on favorite. The 30-year old cowboy was also the only competitor to qualify for two events at the Finals - calf roping and steer wrestling. Double the events means double the earning potential and, with $3.2 million available at the NFR that potential was bound to be huge.
and thus the plate was set for one of professional rodeo's most remarkable comebacks.
Beaver, the 1995 all-around titlist, entered the NFR fourth in the world all-around standings after spending most of the summer side lined with a broken wrist. And, despite a phenomenal run during the Finals, Joltin' Joe still trails Theriot by $24,723 going into the NFR's last two rounds. Everyone was still looking at Theriot.
But then Theriot dropped his bulldogging steer in 9.8 seconds - an eternity in the small Thomas and Mack arena - and dropped from second to sixth place in the average race. then in calf roping, Theriot again struggled. He roped his calf in 8.6 seconds, but broke the barrier in doing so. The penalty dipped Theriot's time to 18.6 seconds, and Theriot dropped to eighth in the average competition.
Meanwhile, Beaver roped his ninth-round calf in 7.7 seconds to wi the round and $13,384. More importantly, Beaver also held onto his second place spot in the average race - a finish that would pay $24,050.
In one round, Beaver stopped being an also-ran. It took him one more round to get the all-around.
By the 10th round, theriot still technically led the race for the all-around title, but the leading contender - thanks to the lucrative average payoff that would be decided that evening - was the Super Looper himself: 42-year old Roy Cooper of Childress, Texas. Cooper, winner of eight world championships including the 1983 all-around, led beaver by a scant $1,995, and was likely to pass Theriot in season earnings, unless Cooper failed to catch his calf.
But Cooper caught his calf in 9.1 seconds in the final round, which effectively pushed Theriot out of contention. Beaver, to win on the all-around title, needed to beat that time. It meant that he'd have to make a second-consecutive winning run.
He got it. His 8.6-second time earned the round win, vaulted him to first in the calf roping average race and brought his earnings to a stunning $78,770. Beaver finished the year with $166,103, compared to Cooper's $157,981 and theriot's $151,645. It was the closest all-around finish since 1988.
Beaver, with $69,858 in earnings, is well behind Mortensen at present. But the current leader acknowledges that the 31-year old Beaver could become a serious challenge to the all-around crown.
"There's a chance he could make it to the Finals in two events," Mortensen said. "the chances are pretty slim of me qualifying, since I'm not going to get on any more bulls."
Despite spending several months out of action this year due to injury, Beaver climbed back into Finals contention rapidly. The Texas roper is currently 14th in the Crown Royal world calf roping standings and 18th in the team roping standings. Currently roping with Monty Joe Petska, Beaver is just $2,500 out of the heading's Top 15 with more than a month left in the season.
To top it off, there are few cowboys who have had more success in the Thomas and Mack Center, where the NFR is conducted every year, than Beaver. since 1991, 'The Beav' has earned an average of $56,260 during the NFR - a total of $337,560 in the last six years.
Should Beaver have a 10-day calf roping run like he did in 1996, and pick up some round wins in team roping, the all-around race could become very interesting, indeed.
THE CONTENDERS
Mortensen and Beaver are no the only cowboys with aspirations of becoming THE MAN. A star-studded collection of all-around hopefuls lurk in the wings, waiting for their chance.
Cody Ohl, 24, leads the names of hopefuls.
Ohl of Orchard, texas, won the rookie of the year award in 1994 and has never missed an NFR in his four-year PRCA career. He lassoed $137,815 last year when he finished third in the world calf roping standings. Notorious for his mid-to late-season charges, he started hot this year and has never cooled of. He led the calf roping standings as of Sept. 10, and he had his best NFR ever in 1996.
In the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds Ohl made three consecutive winning runs, including a 7.3-second time that broke the old NFR calf roping record. He gathered $47,970 at the NFR altogether and could well break that earnings mark this year.
But unlike Beaver, it's unlikely that Ohl will be able to snag additional paychecks outside his main event. Though Ohl earned nearly $10,00 roping steers this year, the 24-year old cowboy is about $5,000 outside steer roping event's top 15 and will probably miss the National Finals Steer Roping this year.
Even so, he is still one of the three contenders who could realistically challenge for the buckle.
In fourth and sixth places, respectively, stand the father-and-son tandem of Butch and Rope Myers.
Butch Myers of Athens, Texas, will be 52 by the time the NFR starts. But the 1980 world steer wrestling champion competed for the all-around buckle as recently as 1989, when he barely lost the title to a young upstart by the name of Ty Murray. Murray, Butch's nephew, went on to win six consecutive all-around titles, and will probably challenge for a seventh all-around next year.
Rope Myers, 27, of Van, Texas, is currently second in the world steer wrestling standings and, after nearly winning the world bulldogging title in 1995, most likely has his eyes set on that prize this year. The 1992 PRCA Resistol rookie of the year has earned $64,961 in the all-around race.
Chad Hagan of Leesville, La., is fifth in the all-around race with $67,610. Hagan, who led the standings this winter, has earned $47,284 bulldogging and is comfortably in the events Top 15. But, after spending time among the calf roping leaders earlier this year, Hagan has slid out of contention for an NFR spot in the event.
though another eight all-around contenders have earned $50,00- or more, and though most will make an NFR appearance, it would take a massive stumble by one of the front-runners, paired with a sensational NFR, for any one of them to get into contention for the all-around buckle.
But, with $3.5 million up for grabs at this year's NFR, who knows?