The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), based in Walla Walla, Washington, was established in 1949. It sanctions more than 100 college rodeos every year in the United States, and represents over 3,500 student athletes attending more than 135 member colleges and universities. As well as regional rodeos, the NIRA sanctions the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) every June.
| Year and Champion | Year and Champion | Year and Champion | Year and Champion | Year and Champion | Year and Champion | Year and Champion | Year and Champion | |||||||
| 1961 Sam Houston St. Teacher’s College (TX) | 1970 Tarleton State College (TX) | 1979 Central Arizona College | 1988 Southwestern Oklahoma State | 1997 Weber State (UT) | 2006 Weber State | 2015 Blue Mountain Community College (OR) [1] | 2024 University of West Alabama | |||||||
| 1962 Sul Ross State College (TX) | 1971 Tarleton State College | 1980 Southeastern Oklahoma State | 1989 Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo | 1998 Lewis-Clark State College (ID) | 2007 Wyoming | 2016 Blue Mountain Community College [2] | 2025 | |||||||
| 1963 Colorado State | 1972 Eastern New Mexico | 1981 Eastern New Mexico | 1990 Wyoming | 1999 Nevada-Las Vegas | 2008 Nevada-Las Vegas | 2017 Sam Houston State | 2026 | |||||||
| 1964 Colorado State | 1973 Arizona | 1982 Southeastern Oklahoma State | 1991 Wyoming | 2000 Western Texas College | 2009 Wyoming | 2018 McNeese State | 2027 | |||||||
| 1965 Sam Houston State College | 1974 Sam Houston State | 1983 Eastern New Mexico | 1992 Walla Walla Community College (WA) | 2001 Oklahoma State | 2010 Gillette College (WY) | 2019 McNeese State | 2028 | |||||||
| 1966 Arizona State | 1975 New Mexico State | 1984 Sam Houston State | 1993 Wyoming | 2002 Texas A&M | 2011 Montana State | 2020 No CNFR this year due to COVID-19 restrictions. | 2029 | |||||||
| 1967 Eastern New Mexico | 1976 New Mexico State | 1985 Sul Ross State | 1994 Southwestern Oklahoma State | 2003 Vernon College (TX) | 2012 Texas Tech - Lubbock [3] | 2021 Montana State | 2030 | |||||||
| 1968 Sam Houston State College | 1977 Utah State | 1986 Montana State | 1995 Southeastern Oklahoma State | 2004 Oklahoma State | 2013 Idaho State [4] | 2022 Weatherford College | 2031 | |||||||
| 1969 Tarleton State College (TX) | 1978 Central Arizona College | 1987 Scottsdale Community College (AZ) | 1996 Southeastern Oklahoma State | 2005 Tarleton State | 2014 Central Arizona [1] | 2023 University of West Alabama | 2032 | |||||||
Rodeo is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was originally based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States, western Canada, and northern Mexico. Today, it is a sporting event that involves horses and other livestock, designed to test the skill and speed of the cowboys and cowgirls. American-style professional rodeos generally comprise the following events: tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, Steer roping, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing. The events are divided into two basic categories: the rough stock events and the timed events. Depending on sanctioning organization and region, other events such as breakaway roping, goat tying, and pole bending may also be a part of some rodeos. The "world's first public cowboy contest" was held on July 4, 1883, in Pecos, Texas, between cattle driver Trav Windham and roper Morg Livingston.
Montana State University–Northern is a public college in Havre, Montana. It is part of the Montana University System and was Northern Montana College prior to the restructuring of Montana's public university system in 1994.
Barrel racing is a rodeo event in which a horse and rider attempt to run a cloverleaf pattern around preset barrels in the fastest time. In collegiate and professional ranks, it is usually a women's event, though both sexes compete at amateur and youth levels. It requires a combination of the horse's athletic ability and the horsemanship skills of a rider in order to safely and successfully maneuver the horse around three barrels placed in a triangle pattern within a large arena.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, also called RodeoHouston or abbreviated HLSR, is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world. It includes one of the richest regular-season professional rodeo events. It has been held at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, since 2003, with the exception of 2021 due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was previously held in the Astrodome. It is considered to be the city's "signature event", much like New Orleans's Mardi Gras, Dallas's Texas State Fair, San Diego's Comic-Con and New York City's New Year's Eve at Times Square.
Sul Ross State University (SRSU) is a public university in Alpine, Texas. The main campus is the primary institution of higher education serving the nineteen-county Big Bend region of far West Texas. Branch campuses, branded as Rio Grande College, are located in Del Rio, Uvalde, Eagle Pass, and Castroville.
Ranger College is a public community college in Ranger, Texas. The college's website asserts that it "is one of the oldest public two-year colleges in continuous operation in the state of Texas." In conjunction with its main campus in Ranger, the college maintains several satellite campuses across Erath County and Brown County, Texas. Ranger College provides dual-credit courses to over 40 area school districts.
The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) is the largest rodeo organization in the world. It sanctions events in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, with members from said countries, as well as others. Its championship event is the National Finals Rodeo (NFR). The PRCA is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States.
The Navy Midshipmen are the athletic teams that represent the United States Naval Academy. The academy sponsors 36 varsity sports teams and 12 club sport teams. Both men's and women's teams are called Navy Midshipmen or "Mids". They participate in the NCAA's Division I, as a non-football member of the Patriot League, a football-only member of the American Athletic Conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), and a member of the Collegiate Sprint Football League (men), Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (men), Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges, Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (men), Mid-Atlantic Squash Conference (men) and Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association. Navy is also one of approximately 300 members of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).
The College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR), sanctioned by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA), is held every June. Since 1999, the CNFR has been held at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Wyoming. Both men and women rodeo athletes compete for the honor of becoming national champions in their events. Colleges also compete as teams for the chance of winning the men's and women's national college rodeo championship.
Shane Wesley Drury was an American professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bull riding. He competed in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). He was also known for his inspiration to fight cancer.
The first tier of intercollegiate sports in the United States includes sports that are sanctioned by one of the collegiate sport governing bodies. The major sanctioning organization is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Before mid-1981, women's top-tier intercollegiate sports were solely governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW). Smaller colleges are governed by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Two-year colleges are governed by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) in most of the country, except for the unaffiliated California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) and Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC).
James Carroll "Jim" Sharp is an American former professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bull riding. In 1988, he became the first bull rider in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA)'s National Finals Rodeo history to successfully ride each of his 10 bulls during the champion-crowning event. The record-breaking performance earned Sharp his first of two PRCA World Champion Bull Rider titles. He rode professionally for nearly 20 years, and was a co-founder of the Professional Bull Riders (PBR). He is considered among the most talented bull riders in history.
The UT Martin Skyhawks are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Tennessee at Martin (UTM) in Martin, Tennessee, United States. The Skyhawks athletic program is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) and competes at the NCAA Division I level including the Football Championship Subdivision. The UTM mascot is Captain Skyhawk. The school colors are navy and orange. They were known as the Pacers until 1995.
Phil Lyne is an American former professional rodeo cowboy who competed in the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA)/Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). Lyne was the RCA Rookie of the Year in 1969. Two seasons later at the National Finals Rodeo (NFR), in 1971, he won the all-around cowboy world championship and the tie-down roping world championship. At the NFR in 1972, he repeated as the all-around world champion cowboy and added a second tie-down roping world championship. Lyne won his first and only steer roping world championship at the National Finals Steer Roping (NFSR) in 1990.
The Canadian Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA) is the governing body of professional rodeo in Canada. Its championship event is the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) held every November.
Ty Erickson is an American professional rodeo cowboy who specializes in steer wrestling. He competes in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) circuit. He is the 2011 PRCA Steer Wrestling Rookie of the Year and is the PRCA 2019 Steer Wrestling World Champion.
Mary Walker is an American former professional rodeo cowgirl who specialized in barrel racing. She won the Women's Professional Rodeo Association barrel racing world championship in 2012. Despite several traumatic events in the two preceding years, she persevered. She also became the oldest woman, at 53, in rodeo to win a world championship in the barrel racing event at the National Finals Rodeo. She was later surpassed by Mary Burger in 2016 when Burger won at age 68. She lost her only child to a car accident in 2011. Two months later, Latte, her horse, fell on her during competition and severely injured her. It was about a year and a half after these incidents that she won her world title. Walker was inducted into the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in 2013.
Hailey Kinsel, is a four-time World Barrel Racing Champion. Kinsel won the title in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022 at the National Finals Rodeo. She has also won the NFR Average title once in 2020. Kinsel and her horses have qualified for the NFR six times in her years in professional rodeo, in 2017 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Kinsel has been competing in rodeo since adolescence, winning awards through high school and college in both barrel racing and breakaway roping, as well as professional rodeo. Her horse, Sister, won the Barrel Racing Horse of the Year Award in 2018.
The National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) is a governing body of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) collegiate women's rugby programs in the United States founded in 2015.
Jerome Carson Davis is an American former professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bull riding. He competed in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), in which he won the 1995 PRCA bull riding world championship. He also competed in the Bull Riders Only (BRO) and Professional Bull Riders (PBR) circuits; the latter of which he was one of the founding members.
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