TUCSON, Ariz. – Cooper Davis is a self-proclaimed momma’s boy, and he is dang sure proud of it.
The 21-year-old talks to his mother, Kim, on a near daily basis and credits her for instilling him with many of the values he has used to succeed in his rookie year on the Built Ford Tough Series.
Most importantly, Kim is one of the toughest women Cooper knows and she is why this month’s PBR Pink Promise campaign hits home with the Jasper, Texas, bull rider.
Kim was diagnosed with breast cancer when Cooper was 4 years old and has since been cancer-free for 16 years.
“She had to go through the whole chemo thing and is a pretty tough lady,” Cooper said on Friday night. “There isn’t a whole lot that woman can’t do.”
Cooper rode Bootdaddy.com Breast Cancer Bounty Bull Woody for 86.75 points in Round 1 of the Cooper Tires Take The Money and Ride Built Ford Tough Series event.
The ride netted Cooper $2,500 dollars and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation $2,500.
“Heck, they had to put him in the front chute and I never seen him out of the front,” he said. “I didn’t know how he was going to go because he goes right, but it worked out good. Anytime you can do good and they can donate to something good like that means a lot.”
In honor of the PBR Pink Promise campaign to raise money for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), every Friday of the past three Built Ford Tough Series events was Wrangler Tough Enough to Wear Pink Night, featuring the $5,000 Bootdaddy.com Breast Cancer Bounty Bull.
The Pink Promise campaign will be capped off with the PBR Buck-a-Thon during the Built Ford Tough World Finals on Oct. 22. The PBR has pledged $250 for every qualified ride and $1,000 for every 90-point ride during Round 2.
Fans can donate and support the cause in a variety of ways HERE.
It is the second time in the past four weeks that Davis has ridden a bounty bull to benefit breast cancer awareness month. He rode BootDaddy.com for 88.5 points in Springfield, Missouri, last month to raise $6,000 for the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks.
In two rides, Davis pocketed himself $7,500 and raised $8,500 for breast cancer awareness.
“It kind of hits home to me, being able to be apart of something like that because of my mom,” Cooper said. “We are best friends. We talk all the time. I am a momma’s boy. If I don’t talk to her every day, something is wrong.”
Cooper and Kim hosted a jackpot bull riding in Jasper, Texas, in 2013 to help raise roughly $5,000 for breast cancer research.
“It is really cool and nice for people to give back,” Cooper said. “It is a good thing. It needs to be brought to attention and there needs to be a cure. They can treat it now, but there needs to be a 100 percent cure.”
He wasn’t wearing it on Friday night, but the past two weeks Davis has worn a pink-flowered riding shirt in support of breast cancer awareness month thanks to his sponsor, Cowboy Game.
Cooper was obviously young when his mom was going through her chemotherapy treatment in 1998, but he did remember when his mother lost her hair during treatment.
“I remember seeing her losing her hair, I didn’t want her to be down about it, so I came in and told her about it and said, ‘Hey mom, you are still pretty without hair. You are just as pretty,’ he recalled. “I am sure that helps you out a little bit when you are down. She is a pretty tough cookie.”
Kim’s toughness and perseverance through her recovery process was passed down to her son.
Cooper said one of the biggest lessons his mother educated him on as a kid during all of their trips to bull ridings in Texas and up north in Wyoming was to always fight for his dreams.
“She taught me to never give up and to always keep fighting if you are going to be a winner,” he said.
Cooper nearly won the BFTS event last weekend in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and is currently on a career-best ride streak with four consecutive rides.
He finished a career-high third in Allentown and heads into Round 2 on Saturday in Tucson sitting tied for third place.
Davis has drawn Zeppelin (2-1, BFTS) for Round 2.
“It was a good weekend,” Davis said. “I felt confident the whole time and I picked a good bull in the championship round and that was all the difference.”
He is currently 14th in the world standings and has already clinched his first bid to the Built Ford Tough World Finals. He has gone 20-for-56 (35.71 percent) in 21 events.
You can’t help but be excited for the upcoming Finals, Davis admitted.
“I think the closer you get, the more you start anticipating it,” he said. “You try and block it all out and finish this event. Then you can go home and think about it for two weeks and get there.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
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