THE REAL STARS
PBR: U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Challenger Co. Championship at the Ford Center
Bulls, not riders, expected to draw fans this weekend

By Ed Godfrey

Published: February 15, 2007

On the Professional Bull Riders circuit, the bulls are bigger stars than the bull riders.

"If bulls could sign autographs, they would put us out of business,” Tupelo bull rider Cord McCoy said.

McCoy also owns Bells Blue, one of the bulls who will buck this weekend at the Ford Center in the $1 million U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Challenger Co. Championship.

PBR merchandise of such bulls — caps, T-shirts, stuffed animals, etc. — outsell the merchandise of cowboys by 3-to-1, said PBR marketing manager Megan Darnell.

Legendary bulls such as Little Yellow Jacket and Mossy Oak Mudslinger — two of the best who ever bucked in a PBR event — are top sellers.

"People are crazy about the bulls,” McCoy said. "You sign just as many Little Yellow Jacket stuffed animals as you do Cord McCoy pictures. When they announced Mossy Oak Mudslinger's name, the crowd went wild.

"They are stars. (Fans) come to watch the bulls as much as they do the cowboys.”

Mossy Oak Mudslinger, owned by the D&H Cattle Co. of Dickson, was voted the 2006 PBR Bull of the Year. Little Yellow Jacket, arguably North Dakota's most famous athlete behind Roger Maris, was named bull of the year in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Those extraordinary bulls were retired from competition at the top of their game because they are now more valuable as sires than bucking bulls.

Cowboys wanted to draw such fearsome buckers because if they stayed on Little Yellow Jacket for eight seconds, they were winning championships and a lot of money. Today, the PBR is waiting for the next great bull to emerge, and there are plenty of contenders.

"There is really not one I can think of right now that stands out like that,” Ada bull rider Jody Newberry said. "There is a little ole black muley bull right now going that is a good one called Here's Your Sign. He's probably one of the rankest bulls going as far as one you would want to get on, but there are others that are really rank that you don't want to get on.

"Scene of the Crash, Boogerman, bulls like that are probably the toughest bulls going, but I don't want to draw 'em just because they are dirty. I like the bulls that buck real hard but are honest about it. They don't try to hop and skip and duck and dive and cheat you. They just buck hard, try to kick the lights out and turn back and spin.”

One thing is certain. Cowboys are hitting the ground much more often today than when Jim Shoulders rode bulls to world championships.

Today's bucking bulls are smaller and more athletic. They kick harder and spin faster than their predecessors.

"They are getting smaller and faster and better. Better as in they buck harder and throw more people off,” Newberry said. "They don't get rode as often, and it's because of the breeding programs they've got nowadays.”

Breeding bucking bulls, like breeding stud race horses, has become a multi-million dollar industry.

Genetics are considered the primary factor in determining a bull's ability to buck, and genetic engineering has increased the number of rank bulls. Some are double-rank, McCoy said.

"A guy got on a bull today that was out of Panhandle Slim and a daughter of Little Yellow Jacket,” McCoy said Monday as he watched qualifying rounds at the Lazy E Arena. "One bull was out of North Dakota and the other was out of south Texas.

"That bull has got genetics out of this world. When they can do stuff like that, cross one great from one breeding program to another great from another man's breeding program, I guess they could develop a super bull.”

In 2003, the PBR and a group of stock contractors put up the money to form the American Bucking Bulls, Inc., to maintain a DNA registry of bucking bulls.

The ABBI is headquartered in Sayre and holds competitions (classics and futurities) for younger bulls to help determine their value as buckers and sires in addition to offering prize money.

McCoy said the financial value of elite bulls probably has tripled in the past five years.

A 50-percent interest in three current PBR bulls — Just A Dream, Scene of the Crash and Big Bucks (2005 PBR Bull of the Year) — sold for $1 million, said stock contractor John Berger.

Bucking bulls today are worth anywhere from $2,500 to $500,000, "depending on the quality of the animal and whether or not they have the ability to bring back the money,” Berger said.

Berger's grandfather, Joe Berger, and his uncle, Nevada Berger, own Little Yellow Jacket.

They sell tiny samples of the prized bull's semen for $1,000 each to other breeders.

"In the past 10 years, the people getting into the business of breeding bulls has probably increased 100 percent,” said John Berger, who believes the industry's growth parallels that of the PBR's growing popularity, which boasts 19 million fans.

Because of the PBR's television exposure, investors such as New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington come to him looking to buy financial interest in bulls.

Celebrities such as pop star Jewel and comedians Larry the Cable Guy and Ron White also own bulls.

"(Pennington) saw an event and was hooked and just wanted to be part of the business,” Berger said. "It's common. We get people from all walks of life.”

Even with advanced breeding programs, Berger said breeding bulls to become the next Little Yellow Jacket — who might come out of retirement for one event in the near future — is still just a roll of the dice.

"Little Yellow Jacket is the best bucking bull that ever walked the earth and probably ever will,” John Berger said. "I don't think there will ever be another.”