Two-Time World Champion Bull Smooth Operator Passes Away
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Reigning PBR Stock Contractor of the Year Chad Berger announced Sunday morning the passing of two-time World Champion Bull Smooth Operator (2010-2022).
Smooth Operator –the oldest two-time YETI World Champion Bull in PBR history – had retired following a PBR-record eighth and final World Finals qualification last year. He won his world titles at 9 (2019) and 10 years old (2020).
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of 2019 & 2020 PBR World Champion Bucking Bull, Smooth Operator. He had the heart of a champion! It’s not very often a bull like him comes along, but he gave us one heck of a ride! pic.twitter.com/LsTSnx616n
— Chad Berger 🇺🇸 (@chadberger) February 13, 2022
Smooth Operator ended his career with one final buckoff – the 91st time he dumped one of the PBR’s top bull riders on the premier series – when he bucked off Derek Kolbaba in 5.52 seconds during Round 2 of the 2021 PBR World Finals. The out was nowhere near Smooth Operator’s finest, but Berger looked on proudly at the bull who finally provided him his long-desired world title in 2019 as Smooth Operator took one final victory lap around T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Smooth Operator went 91-13 in 104 outs on the premier series after making his debut in 2014. The feisty bovine was an outstanding 116-13 at all levels of competition.
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Smooth Operator is one of only five back-to-back PBR World Champion Bulls. He, SweetPro’s Bruiser (2016-2018), Bushwacker (2013-2014), Little Yellow Jacket (2002-2004) and Dillinger (2000-2001) are the only bulls to pull off the monumental accomplishment. Smooth Operator is also one of six World Champion bulls with multiple world titles. (Bones is the only other bull not mentioned above to have won two or more world titles).
To really appreciate how special Smooth Operator’s career was, you have to go back to 2015 and 2016, where injuries appeared ready to end the up-and-coming bull’s career.
“When he was 5 years old, I think he was the rankest bull I’d ever seen,” Berger said last year. “And he got hurt (in 2015) with what could have been a career-ending injury, really. He severely hurt his back, and we did not know if he’d ever buck again. Then he breaks a kneecap (in 2016) and is out for basically half of another year.”
Smooth Operator qualified for the 2016 PBR World Finals despite missing the first half of the season, but he no longer looked like the World Champion Bull contender he previously was.
Berger and his team at Berger Bucking Bulls worked Smooth Operator back to full health with love and care by 2017, but it wasn’t until 2019 that Smooth Operator miraculously returned to championship contention, winning the 2019 World Championship with a 46-point World Champion Bull average.
Reigning two-time World Champion Jose Vitor Leme owns the highest score aboard the Berger bovine superstar – riding him for a sensational 94.25 points on September 12, 2020, in Billings, Montana.
“Smooth Operator is a strong bull,” Leme said. “He moves a lot to the front. He knows what he needs to do to drop off cowboys. He is one of the best.”
It was not the buckoffs or the high scores that made Smooth Operator, but it rather his heart that always rang supreme to Berger.
“That bull has won two world titles just with the heart,” Berger said last year. “It’s all heart. That bull has got the biggest heart to keep doing what he does. He just reminds me of an old campaigner that knew what he had to do to win.”
The PBR extends its condolences to Berger, his family, and their partners on Smooth Operator Julie Rosen and Clay Struve.
PBR.com will have more on Smooth Operator’s legacy in the coming days.
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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