Lifestyles
PRCA ProRodeo Photo/Mike Copeman
Triple Crown Cowboy
Trevor Brazile is one of the most dedicated, determined and driven athletes in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). Need proof? How about eight world titles in six years? Last year was Trevor’s most successful yet, winning three titles in one year. That would be rodeo’s equivalent of the Triple Crown. Even more astonishing, this Decatur, Texas, resident was the first man in 24 years to accomplish that feat.
PRCA ProRodeo Photo/Mike Copeman
The all-around championship is earned by the cowboy who wins the largest amount of money in more than one event. Brazile regularly competes in three—tie-down roping, steer roping and team roping. In addition to winning his fifth all-around world title, he also captured the tie-down roping and steer roping wins. He earned the all-around and tie-down roping titles at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) last December in Las Vegas. He also qualified for the championship event in team roping. He won the steer roping title at the National Finals Steer Roping in Hobbs, New Mexico, in November. This was his second consecutive steer roping championship.
“Winning the first steer roping title last year really got my juices flowing,” Brazile said. “The all-around is always my main goal, but winning an individual title gave me the confidence that I could be at the top of a single event as well.”
Along the way to his titles, Brazile has broken more PRCA records than any other cowboy. He set a single season earnings record in 2006 at $329,924, then beat his own record in 2007 with $425,115. He became the youngest cowboy to join the $1 million club, then the $2 million, and is closing in on $3 million.
There is rarely a day that Brazile doesn’t spend most of it on horseback. When he is at home, he practices with a vengeance. When he is at a rodeo, he’s on horseback before the competition, making sure his animals are as ready as he is. He takes a lot of pride in the horses he rides, takes excellent care of them, and knows that they have been a key to his success.
PRCA ProRodeo Photo/Mike Copeman
Last year’s competition was slightly off-track for Brazile. Even though his horses received the best care possible, his steer roping and tie-down roping horses both had to stay home due to injuries. He ended up borrowing horses and riding young ones. Horses for timed-event cowboys are like cars for race car drivers. You get used to your own, and while you can drive another one, the reactions are not the same. Factor in different sizes, abilities and personalities of an equine athlete and many adjustments have to be made.
“I’ve always taken a lot of pride in my horses,” Brazile said. “I know that they have been a big part of my success. This year was a lesson for me. I just put everything in God’s hands and it turned out better than I could have ever imagined.”
En route to his tie-down roping championship, Brazile rode eight different horses. Just days before the NFR, he was scrambling for a mount. His great horse, Texaco, was injured in Houston the previous March. Brazile had high hopes that the sorrel gelding would be back in shape and ready for the December championship event.
PRCA ProRodeo Photo/Mike Copeman
With a gold buckle and his horse’s future on the line, Brazile left Texaco at home. He called the Busby family, who had purchased a tie-down horse from Brazile. It was that horse, named Jaguar, that took Brazile through ten nail-biting rounds of competition at the NFR.
It came down to the wire and a matter of a few seconds before he claimed his third gold buckle. In tie-down roping, a roper is allowed two opportunities to catch the calf. In the NFR’s final round of competition at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, the unthinkable happened. Brazile missed with his first throw and had to regroup and try to catch the calf a second time. He was successful with that loop, but it cost him precious time. He finished with a 15.0 second run.
While he didn’t get any money for the run, he still was able to win enough over-all to earn the title by a narrow margin. Brazile finished the year with $189,920 in tie-down roping earnings to pass Houston Hutto from Del Rio, Texas, who had $185,643.
“I had planned and prepared for that final run,” Brazile said. “When I realized I’d missed, I thought I’d lost it all. It was close to shear panic. I knew I had to regroup and get the job done. It could have gone either way.”
Although the tie-down championship came down to that final run, Brazile had won enough money to secure the all-around title after the eighth round of competition. The National Finals Steer Roping was held in Hobbs, New Mexico, in November, and he won that title with $88,953. He also finished fifth in the Crusher World Standings in team roping in the heading category. With the help of partner Patrick Smith, he earned $146,243.
Susan Kanode
With his three championships in one year, Brazile became one of only three men in the history of the PRCA to earn rodeo’s triple crown. The first was legendary Jim Shoulders in 1956. Shoulders (who is now deceased) won titles in bareback riding and bull riding along with the all-around for three consecutive years. Roy Cooper won the steer roping, tie-down roping and all-around in 1983.
Rodeo announcer Bob Tallman watched Cooper’s success, and has been in arenas across the country watching Brazile chase his own gold buckles.
“I saw the last calf that Roy Cooper and Trevor Brazile each roped to earn their titles—24 years apart,” Tallman said. “Roy Cooper was and still is multi-talented. When Trevor won it, I believed [it would be] the start of a run of triple crowns. Trevor is the most focused, studied and motivated human being I know. He continues to elevate himself. I am a Trevor believer. I’ve been wrong a few times, but I’d bet the ranch on this man.”
There is no doubt that Brazile is not through setting records. While he has accomplished so much in the arena, he never gets tired of winning and strives to do that every time he swings his rope. One of the biggest challenges he is facing is in the rodeo business.
Rodeo committees are changing their formats, and Brazile has found himself staying at a rodeo longer in order to compete in all of his events. It has slowed down his ability to get to more rodeos and have more opportunities to get a check. It means he has to plan more and make every rodeo he competes in count.
Susan Kanode
Brazile’s legacy as a great cowboy, talented athlete and world-class roper started long before he joined the PRCA in 1996. As a 31-year-old, he still has years of competition ahead of him, and while he has set goals for his future, his priorities have changed. He and his wife Shada had their first child, son Treston, this past December.
“Winning the triple crown was great, and it definitely is a highlight of my career. But becoming a dad was a highlight of my year last year, and now I’m going to work at being the best dad I can be.”
Brazile will be taking his family with him, and plans on hitting the rodeo trail hard for another five years. Then he will change his schedule so he can have more time at home.
So, what’s next for Brazile? A person who always wants to be better, do more and strive for excellence, he’s working towards the grand slam— individual titles in steer roping, tie-down roping, team roping and the all-around. He’s using the same discipline, motivation and enthusiasm to get him there.
“There’s no guarantee that if you work your butt off that you’re going to be successful,” he said. “The only guarantee is that if you don’t, you won’t.”