Woopaa Bucking in Memory – and Celebration – of Larry Barker’s Lifelong Friend
By: Justin Felisko
PUEBLO, Colo. – Larry Barker was tucked tightly into the thousands of fans at Last Cowboy Standing when the crowd under the moonlit sky in Cheyenne, Wyoming, erupted when Boudreaux Campbell rode Woopaa for 95.25 points.
Barker is not sure if anyone could have heard him amidst the deafening roar, but the soon-to-be 70-year-old let out a loud and proud “Woopaaaa!” as his prized bovine athlete trotted off to the backpens.
Most of the people near him would probably have had no idea that the man sitting next to them was the proud owner of the greatest bucking bull in the world.
Barker hollered even louder four days later when he watched from his home in Las Cruces, New Mexico, as reigning World Champion Jose Vitor Leme ride Woopaa for a record-setting 97.75 points on CBS television.
“Woopaa” – was a celebratory phrase Barker heard hundreds, if not thousands, of times from his late best friend, JP Lewis.
The lifelong friends and team roping partners grew up near Dell City, Texas, a tiny farming and ranching community with only a few hundred people. They became nearly inseparable once they met each other in middle school.
And whenever something great happened, whether it be at the United States Team Roping Championships or just a late night out at the bar, Barker knew it was only a matter of time before Lewis was yelling “Woopaa!”
It was hard to find a more outgoing and livelier person than Lewis in Dell City. He could often be seen wearing a colorful and wild western shirt, and there was a good chance he had a big chaw of tobacco in his mouth when he would greet someone with a “Howdy pard!” and a firm handshake.
If you stuck around long enough, the self-taught musician would likely play you a tune or two as well.
“Everybody knew JP, and everybody loved JP,” Barker told PBR.com Thursday during YETI Bull Week. “I don’t think he had an enemy in the world. He was just a good guy. Him and I ran around and roped together for over 30 years.”
Barker then paused before letting out a hearty laugh.
“We would run around and do things we probably can’t put on the news, but we would be at bars having fun, and you would hear him yell ‘Woopaa!’ He was just a fun guy.”
When Lewis passed away on September 8, 2017, following a long battle with prostate cancer, JP’s wife, Tanya, approached Barker with a request during the memorial service.
“If you ever have a bull worthy of the name Woopaa, would you name him that?” Tanya asked.
The request was a no-brainer for Barker.
Of course, he would.
Barker, at the time, had a young red bull who had just turned 6 months old the day following JP’s passing. Barker was hopeful – maybe, just maybe, this bull could buck in memory of his lifelong friend.
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Barker did not want to name just any bull Woopaa, though, so he told Tanya to let him wait a few years and see if any of his bulls could develop into something special.
The owner of Barker Produce in Las Cruces, New Mexico, had been hopeful to one day raise a World Champion contending bull. But he had been searching for the needle in the haystack for more than 20 years since he bought his first bull from PBR co-founder Gilbert Carrillo.
So, when Barker decided to finally name that small bull who was born six months before Lewis’s passing Woopaa last January, he could not have dreamed about what was in store for this young bovine athlete.
Woopaa quickly rose through the ABBI Classic rankings under the watchful care of Laramie Wilson and Katie Perschbacher, whom Barker entrusted to haul and care for the 4-year-old bovine stud.
Woopaa then stepped his game up to a new level once the ABBI Finals came around in November. Woopaa first bucked off Marcus Mast at the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals for a 46-point bull score and then teamed up with Leme for a sensational 95.75-point bull ride at the 2020 PBR World Finals.
The ride resulted in Leme clinching his first world title, and Woopaa clinched the ABBI Classic title.
“All I could think about when JP’s wife asked me was that red bull, Woopaa, but I never thought he would be this good,” Barker said. “I put the name Woopaa on him last January and sent him to Laramie, and shoot, he just got better and better. He won the ABBI Classic last year, and now he is in the lead for the world title.”
The No. 1 bull in the 2021 YETI World Champion Bull standings is matched up once again with Campbell at this coming weekend’s 15/15 Bucking Battle at the Bad Boy Mowers Mowdown in Little Rock, Arkansas.
“He is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of bull, I feel like,” Campbell said. “You don’t see many like that. He has the leap in the air, the kick out, the speed, the intensity. He has everything in the judge’s eyes. All the rider has to do is be on for 8 seconds, and he is going to be marked.
“Yes, they are getting a little more common with bulls like Chiseled and Woopaa, but man, it is just an honor to just be in a time to ride bulls that the world has never seen buck like that until nowadays. Living in this time, riding bucking bulls like this, it don’t get much better.”
Barker will be like many fans as he will be tuning in to CBS Sports on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET to yell Woopaa once again and cheer Campbell on.
“I’m always letting out a Woopaa,” Barker said. “He’s got Boudreaux again this weekend. He draws Boudreaux one time and Jose the next. That is alright, and I hope they all ride him, and I hope he keeps that 95-and-above score.”
This weekend will be Woopaa’s eighth out of the season, officially qualifying him for the 2021 YETI World Championship, and it will be his first out since he and Leme teamed up for the highest score in PBR history – 97.75 points.
“To me, it was the exact same ride Jose made at the Finals, but they just got the score right the second time,” PBR Director of Livestock Cody Lambert said.
The 2021 YETI World Champion Bull will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top eight regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals (Nov. 3-7 in Las Vegas).
Barker could not be there in Tulsa for the historic moment between Leme and Woopaa as he was on vacation in South Dakota checking out Mount Rushmore, but his phone began to vibrate like crazy once word got out that his bull had made PBR history.
In fact, Barker’s phone is always ringing these days when it comes to Woopaa.
“I have people I know all over from the past that have become Woopaa fans,” Barker said. “I was born in Frederick, Oklahoma. All my kin used to live there, so I still have gone back there, and I have been all around Southwest Oklahoma, near Lawton.
“People from all over there text me and call me and want to know when he is bucking. It is one of those things where everybody loves him. JP was just such a fun guy. That was his saying, and in the community of Dell City, that little community where we grew up, everybody has become a fan of this bull.”
It is one reason why Barker has “not been bothered one bit” politely turning down multiple offers in the six digits for Woopaa.
This past Thursday, Barker even received a phone call from a prospective buyer who had to be informed Woopaa is not for sale.
Not only is Barker’s bull in memory of his lifelong friend JP, but Woopaa has become the pride for so many hardworking people he has crossed paths with, and that means a lot to Barker.
“I have raised bulls for about 20 years, and I finally got one that is a World Champion contender, and I don’t need the money,” Barker said. “I have other companies that make me a good living. I am well aware of what I’ve got. That is why I still own him. He is a bull that, if he stays healthy, might be the best bull of all time.
“But Woopaa is just so special to me, and so many people that have become attached to that bull, they would probably shoot me if I sold that bull. I have brought life to a couple of small towns. With all this COVID and everything, they needed something. This gives them something to watch.”
Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko
Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media
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