Digging into their meager savings, they threw in $1,000 apiece and gambled on a pipe dream as boldly as they would climb aboard a 2,000-pound animal and try to hang on for eight seconds. This was written by Josh Peter and and appeared at Yahoo.com
Impossible, scoffed the doubters, when they learned the 20 riders planned to break away from the rodeo establishment, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, and start the Professional Bull Riders tour.
On Sunday, when Justin McBride clinched the PBR championship, he won a $1 million bonus and increased his season earnings to almost $1.9 million. To put that in perspective, Ty Murray, the "King of Cowboys" whose rodeo feats have landed him spots in commercials for Bud Light and Quizno's Subs and a leading role in a reality show, earned $1.9 million during his entire career with the PRCA.
Yet as faux $1 million bills fluttered from the rafters like confetti and a sellout crowd at Thomas & Mack Center celebrated McBride's victory Sunday, one couldn't smell a whiff of envy from Murray or the other founders – and that had nothing to do with the pungent smell of bull chips.
"I'm a rich cowboy," McBride said.
He's not alone.
Earlier this year, the PBR sold majority interest of its tour to Spire Capital, a private equity investment group in New York. For the PBR founders who held onto their shares, the payoff on their original $1,000 investment was $4.7 million each.
"I told them they did better than Warren Buffett," said Richard Patterson, a member of the investment group that paid $90 million for control of the PBR.
Yet despite the windfall, it's a story of heartbreak, risk, regret and reward.
The risk started April 20, 1992, when the bull riders squeezed into a motel room in Scottsdale, Ariz. They were fed up.
One of their own, Wacey Cathey, had just finished a stellar bull riding career the same way he started it – virtually dead broke. Determined to avoid the same fate, they risked alienating themselves from the establishment and forked over $1,000 as seed capital for the PBR.
Some cowboys couldn't afford it. Others invested in other things, such as beer and whiskey.
Jerome Davis, the youngest in the motel room at age 19, had only $500. He asked for extra time to come up with the rest of the money. The next week he won $500 riding bulls and immediately gave it to the founders. But with the investment came great risk. To make money, the riders still had to stay aboard some of the world's meanest animals for eight seconds.
In 1994, the first full season of the PBR, one of the founders died in a bull riding accident.
The riders grieved, paid their respects and, as those in the sport do, kept climbing aboard bulls and taking risks.
In 1996, they hired a 28-year-old as their new CEO. His name was Randy Bernard, but among the establishment his name was about to be mud. Thumbing his nose at the old guard, he replaced country music at the events with rock and rap, brought in fireworks and lasers, and had the gall to instruct his P.A. announcer to open every show with the following mantra: "This is not a rodeo. This is the one and only PBR."
In his first year on the job, Bernard and a handful of riders walked into the MGM Grand here, sat down with management and showed the same gumption. They demanded $1 million for the right to host the PBR World Finals.
"They looked at us like we were a bunch of dumb bull riders," Bernard recalled.
But these bull riders weren't budging.
"We were either leaving with $1 million or leaving with nothing," recalled Cody Lambert, one of the PBR's founders.
They left with a $1 million deal and new momentum. But tragedy always hovered.
In 1998, Davis – he was the teen who'd come up with the $1,000 thanks to his timely hot streak on the rodeo circuit – was paralyzed from the waist down in a bull riding accident. Some founders had sold their original shares for up to $17,000, but that wouldn't come close to paying Davis' medical bills, which approached $1 million.
That notion seemed less outlandish in 2003 when Ford signed on as the PBR's title sponsor and put up a $1 million bonus for the tour's season champion. But sponsors weren't the only ones taking notice of bull riding. So too were well-heeled suitors.
Vince McMahon, the professional wrestling impresario, expressed interest in buying the PBR. So did NASCAR. Then came an offer from Clear Channel Entertainment for approximately $40 million.
Each time, the bull riders walked away. Then they reached out to an investment analyst and put together a five-year plan. But the years ahead included unexpected challenges.
Bernard survived an attempted ouster. The PBR survived a threatened walkout by riders. Tuff Hedeman, the ultra-popular rider and PBR founder who had become Bernard's arch-nemesis, resigned as president.
During the time of the upheaval, two founders sold their shares for $240,000.
"I told them not to do it," Bernard said.
Bernard knew what others eventually learned: The PBR had become bigger than Hedeman, bigger than any one rider. It had become a multimillion-dollar property.
Learning the tour was up for sale in 2006, members of Spire Capital equity fund came to hear the rock and rap, to see the fireworks and lasers and the bone-crushing clashes between man and beast. They also saw a fiercely loyal fan base and what they considered a unique opportunity to take a niche sport mainstream.
Secret discussions ensued.
In April, Davis was talking to J.W. Hart, an active rider and member of the PBR board, when Davis mentioned that he'd fallen on hard times.
"Whatever you do," Hart said, "don't sell your shares."
In mid-April, Bernard called the founders.
"I've got good news and bad news," he said. "The bad news is I sold the PBR."
The good news: When the deal went through, Bernard said, each of the 12 founders who held onto their original shares would have a chance to cash in their $1,000 investment for $4.7 million.
"When I got the call, I was out shoeing my own horse trying to save $65," Lambert said.
Seven months later, the founders are relishing not only their good fortune, but at what has become of the PBR. The pipe dream now is a tour with a 30-event season that culminates with the finals in Las Vegas. Versus, Fox or NBC broadcast every event, and the world's top 45 riders and the owners of the world's top bulls compete for more than $10 million in prize money each season.
Murray, the King of Cowboys, on Sunday marveled that McBride was in position to win as much money in one season as Murray had during his record-setting career with the PRCA. But when asked about a special moment regarding the sale, Murray pointed at a cowboy in a wheelchair and said, "Right there."
The man in the cowboy hat kept wheeling until he reached the base of Murray's VIP box. Three men lifted him and carried him up a portable staircase and set him down in seats close enough to hear the bulls snort and bellow.
The cowboy was Jerome Davis, the bull rider-turned-bull breeder who recently escaped mounting debt thanks to the $4.7 million return on his investment.
After paying his bills and fixing up his house, Davis said, he intends to save a good portion of the money for another dream that has replaced the long-shot vision of the PBR. It involves stem cells, medical research and experimental procedures. Davis is hoping, praying, that the return on his $1,000 investment could pay for yet-to-be-developed science that would restore his ability to walk.
"I always had a dream of coming back and getting on one more bull," Davis said. "It's a long shot. But wouldn't that be a great way for the story to end?" This was written by Josh Peter and and appeared at Yahoo.com