Leme and Outlaw Lead a Star-Studded Lineup Into Rocksprings
By: Andrew Giangola
PUEBLO, Colo. – After pioneering the return of live professional sports with closed events during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, PBR will be one of the first sports to welcome fans back into the arena.
Fans are, to put it mildly, wildly enthusiastic about returning to their seats for Championship Weekend of the PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge, presented by U.S. Border Patrol, in Sioux Falls July 10-12.
However, two weeks before the team playoffs, the first PBR event with fans in the stands since the Unleash The Beast visited Little Rock, Arkansas, in early March will occur – with little fanfare yet mighty star power.
On Friday and Saturday night, near the Mexico border in Rocksprings, Texas, the Slick Rock Challenge PBR Touring Pro Division event will be stacked with top riders and bulls, including world No. 1 Jose Vitor Leme and Chase Outlaw.
Outlaw is returning to PBR competition for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery in December that had kept him sidelined for the entire 2020 season.
PBR has been sanctioning Rocksprings the past 12 years in this jewel of a small town, which is the seat of Edwards County about 160 miles east of San Antonio.
The local population of 1,135 generally increases more than 30 percent for the annual bull riding and dance, one that promoter Souli Shanklin, who happens to be Edwards County’s Judge and, as such, the county’s highest-ranking elected official, is determined to move ahead with.
Especially when considering all his town has endured.
In 1927, a level F5 tornado basically blew Rocksprings off the map. One third of the town’s population was killed.
Two years later, the Edwards County Fair Association was created, introducing a local fair, stock show, and bull riding.
Since then, 91 years and counting, the late-June rodeo, now strictly a bull riding, has been part of local life, the kind of generation-bridging institution found in small-town America, vital to the rhythm of a community.
“It’s our little Fourth of July celebration, part of the lifeblood of this community,” Judge Shanklin said.
The Rocksprings rodeo did take one break during World War II. There weren’t enough men left in Edwards County to compete.
Even today, some say the sparsely populated county is not rural, it’s more frontier.
“If you’re coming to Rocksprings, you’re coming to Rocksprings, because there’s no reason to come through Rocksprings,” Shanklin said. “But once you’re here, the water is so pretty and clean you can play with your family in the creek.”
When the rodeo and fair re-started after the war, veterans were its backbone and have been ever since.
It takes about 20 hard-working volunteers and support from the 4H, FFA, and Rocksprings Youth Club to pull off the PBR TPD stop. But make no mistake, this is no rinky-dink production.
Sponsors enjoy a white-table cloth three-course dinner of ribeye steaks and tender pork loin.
Afterwards, plenty of great leftovers have been known to go to the cowboys.
Priefert outfits the arena with the industry’s best arena panels and bucking chutes.
The bull quality is top-notch, and big-time riders come, too.
Two-time PBR World Champion J.B. Mauney has gotten on bulls in Rocksprings in the past. Cody Teel won the event last year.
This weekend’s entry list is headlined by the highly anticipated 2020 debut of Outlaw, who had a career year in 2019, finishing third, along with world No. 1 Leme, who has already won four UTB events this year.
Additional riders scheduled for Rocksprings, many who had competed earlier in June on Division A teams of the PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge in Las Vegas include three-time PBR World Champion Silvano Alves, Fabiano Vieira, Colten Jesse, Brennon Eldred, Cody Campbell, Cody Casper, Rubens Barbosa, Luciano de Castro, Marcus Mast and Wallace Vieira de Oliveira.
The bull power in Texas will be formidable as well.
Stock contractors J.W. Hart, J.D. Nix, Cooper/Scruggs, Riley Samford and Martinez Bucking Bulls will be forming a rank pen to make these riders earn every qualified ride.
The best product is one that sells itself. Not much marketing is needed in Rocksprings where fans renew like clockwork for some of the best premium box seats in Western sports
“The VIP section is right against the fence, and you can talk to the fans from the dirt,” said Shorty Gorham, who has fought bulls in Rocksprings. “It’s big-time bull riding with a small town feel, where everyone knows each other.”
General admission seats are available at the gate on the day of the event.
Judge Shanklin and the event organizers see many of the same faces year after year.
“I always loved riding at events with a lot of history,” said nine-time World Champion Ty Murray. “Here in this little Texas town, there’s an event that’s been going on forever, and that just brings more prestige and meaning to it.”
Judge Shanklin is following local and state health guidelines in organizing the event, and he has faith that his community will continue to act responsibly.
And so, in challenging times, Rocksprings soldiers on, bringing a tight-knit community another summertime bull riding celebration to a proud town blown down once, but not about to let one enduring tradition go off into the wind.
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