About: Ted

Finlay hopes to add his name to the legacy in the Panhandle GUYMON, Okla. – Long before he even considered competing in college rodeo, Jake Finlay knew there was something special going on at Oklahoma Panhandle State University. When then-coach Craig Latham offered him an opportunity to attend the college in nearby Goodwell, it didn’t take long for Finlay to make his decision. Within short order, he arrived in the Oklahoma Panhandle with a suitcase in one hand and his bronc saddle in another. He had a thick Australian accent and a dream of being one of the next great cowboys from Bronc Rider U. “I couldn’t ride a gate on a windy day when I got to Panhandle,” said Finlay, 25, of Goodniwindi, Queensland. “They pretty much repeated the same things: Lift on your rein and get a two-jump spur out. They just drummed it into me, but they’ve got a lot of good bronc riders because of it.” In all, six cowboys with ties to the Oklahoma Panhandle account for 12 bronc riding world championships: Billy Etbauer (5), Robert Etbauer (2), Taos Muncy (2), Tom Reeves, Jeffery Willert and Spencer Wright. All told, they have 68 National Finals Rodeo qualifications from bronc riders who made No Man’s Land their homes at some point. Finlay hopes to be mentioned among the elite, and he already carries some pretty nice hardware with him: He was part of two Panhandle State men’s team national championships in 2017-2018, the latter of which also saw him win the bronc riding national crown at the 2018 College National Finals Rodeo. “That’s one of the best things I’ve ever gotten to do,” he said. “It’s nice to see the saddle bronc riding title go back there. What’s better is that we won the team title twice, and that was just as cool, if not cooler, to do.” The pride that he exudes about his alma mater shines as brightly as his red hair, and he carries that with him wherever he goes. He’s already eager to be back in the region for this year’s Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo, set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, April 30; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 1; and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 2, at Henry C. Hitch Pioneer Arena. He understands the proud tradition the region has, especially for bronc riding, and he’d love to stake claim to that elusive Pioneer Days Rodeo title when he can. “When you look at it, there are a lot of gold buckles that are held on by a Guymon Pioneer Days belt,” Finlay said of the unique, wearable trophy issued to Guymon champions each year. “It’s a hell of a committee, and they’re always thinking about us cowboys. They bring the best stock, and they’re always wanting to have a good rodeo, especially for the contestants.” When Finlay thinks of ProRodeo’s elite, he didn’t have to venture too far from Goodwell in order to see it. Just outside of town is the home of Robert Etbauer, now the rodeo coach at Panhandle State. Not far from him are the homes of Latham and Robert’s youngest brother, Dan, a 10-time NFR qualifier who finished as the reserve world champion in 1995. Dan Etbauer may have never earned gold himself, but he was part of the team that accounts for seven of the most prestigious buckles in the game. He was there when Pioneer Days Rodeo made the transition from a small, hometown rodeo to what it is today – a major stop for hundreds of contestants; it also was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2015. While at Panhandle State, he qualified for the CNFR, then embarked on an incredible ProRodeo career. He was part of a unique traveling posse that included his older brothers and Latham. The foursome obtained a group sponsorship from Oklahoma-based Express Ranches, and the team pooled its money in order to cover the expenses that come with traveling the rodeo circuit. “My greatest memory was rodeoing with my brothers,” Dan Etbauer said. “I had just always dreamed of it. When I was a freshman in high school, we were assigned to write a paper on ‘What’s Your Dream in Life,’ and my dream was that I got to rodeo with my brothers and go to the NFR with them. “It was a dream, and we never thought it would come true, but we got lucky and it did.” It was more than luck. Being some of the best to have ever played the game – all four have been inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s Rodeo Hall of Fame – means being better than most. The Etbauers and Latham definitely were that during their heyday As an avid spectator now, Dan Etbauer has seen the positive changes in rodeo. Contestants are able to compete for more money, and the stock has improved. There have always been spectacular animal athletes, but there are just more of them in today’s rodeo than there were three decades ago. “The bucking horses are phenomenal now, and the born-to-buck program they came up with is really working,” he said. “I wish I was riding broncs today to get on some of those horses. If you watched the NFR back when we were going, there were three to four horses in each pen you had a chance to win on. Now there are three or four in each pen where you don’t have a chance. It would be fun to get on that caliber of horses.” That’s one thing Finlay has over the older generation. Though he has yet to earn an NFR bid – he finished 17th in 2019 and 20th last year – he has been among the best. He sits 16th in the world standings as of mid-February with most of the season left. But he’d love to have his name mentioned with so many others who have ties to the Oklahoma Panhandle. “Not everybody can  Continue Reading »

ARLINGTON, Texas – Halfway through the 2020 National Finals Rodeo, Jacob Edler had to make a big business decision. He had qualified for his first NFR on Ditto, a mare that was owned by Canadian Clayton Moore and recently acquired by Shane Frey. They matched together pretty well through the first five nights, but Edler noticed he was getting further away from the steers on each run. He opted for Mabel, a 9-year-old sorrel mare owned by Garrett Henry and ridden through the last couple of years by fellow bulldogger Stetson Jorgensen. That made all the difference in the world … well, Edler’s world championship, anyway. “This has been an awesome experience,” said Edler, 26, of State Center, Iowa. “I just tried to do my job every day. Getting to ride Ditto the first five rounds was great, and she did great, but I knew it wasn’t going to work for the rest of the time. I have to thank Garret and Stetson for letting me ride Mabel. She’s the reason I’m sitting here right now.” In all, he placed in eight of 10 go-rounds and won the NFR average title with a cumulative time of 43.4 seconds. That was worth $67,269 and allowed the Iowa bulldogger to pocket $154,904 over 10 December nights inside Globe Life Field. He finished the year with $200,510 and outdistanced Jorgensen by just $1,680 to earn the coveted Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. “It’s a start to my future,” he said. “I’ve never seen this much money in my whole life, and I’m very grateful for that. I’ve been blessed to do as well as I have. Me and my beautiful fiancé, Moriah, are going to be able to start a life with this.” Not only is he about to be married, but he and Moriah are expecting their first child. Edler took his moment during an in-arena interview to proclaim that for all the rodeo world to witness. In Saturday’s 10th round, he stopped the clock in 3.9 seconds to finish in a tie for fourth place, with $8,885. Not only did that help his stance in the world standings, but it pushed him past Jorgensen for the average lead. Mabel was the driving force, but the decision to jump on the red rocket’s back all came down to a gut feeling he had – or maybe it was a premonition. “I had a dream about it right before the fifth round,” said Edler, who finished as the runner-up to his national champion teammate J.D. Struxness at the 2016 College National Finals Rodeo but is now taking home the first gold buckle in steer wrestling for Northwestern Oklahoma State University. “In the fifth round, I had a great steer drawn, and there was too much separation when I made the move to the steer. I ended up placing fourth in the round, but I knew if I’d been on a horse that gave me a little straighter, tighter goal, I would have won the go-round; that was my sure-tell sign that I needed to get on something else.” And what does it mean to wear that world champion’s trophy around Alva, home of his alma mater where he now lives? “It’s huge,” he said. “We’re one of the forces to be reckoned with as far as the Bulldogging Capital of College Rodeo, so to be able to bring that gold buckle back to Alva is great.” While the 10 days of ProRodeo’s grand finale may seem to have been a great success for the Iowa cowboy, it wasn’t. He almost missed action because he tested positive for COVID, but a second test came up negative. He also watched his spot in the world standings drop to sixth after the ninth round, but he was able to climb back up quickly with a fantastic final night of bulldogging on the final night of the wild 2020 season. “You’ve got to show up every day with a positive attitude,” Edler said. “You’ve got to also keep pushing forward. “It was awesome to get to compete with a guy that’s such a competitor like Stetson. When I threw that steer down, I felt like I did my job to the best of my ability, tipped my hat and bowed to the crowd and got out of the arena to see how the race unfolded, and it fell in my favor.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – College students around the world spend tens of thousands of dollars for their educations. Northwestern Oklahoma State University senior Bridger Anderson just received the biggest lessons of his life over the last 10 days at the National Finals Rodeo. On top of it, he made $77,068 at ProRodeo’s premier event. “Things just didn’t play out the way we expected it to, and we just rolled with it,” said Anderson, a steer wrestler from Carrington, North Dakota. “My steer (Friday) night didn’t leave like we wanted to, but we did exactly what we were planning on.” He threw the steer down in 4.4 seconds, but he broke the barrier – not allowing the steer an appropriate head start – and was penalized 10 seconds. A 4.4 wouldn’t have placed in the ninth round, but it would have helped him stay a little higher in the average race, which pays bonuses for the fastest cumulative times on 10 runs. Anderson still finished sixth in the aggregate, which was worth $16,500. He finished the year with $120,934 and ninth in the world standings. That’s proof of just how tight the bulldogging race was in 2020. “I feel very fortunate,” he said. “It’s not every day you win over $70,000 in a week and a half. I’m happy that I’m pretty healthy and my horse was pretty healthy. Stockton (Graves) did an outstanding job for me as my hazer, and I couldn’t ask for a better week. “I couldn’t be happier for Jacob Edler. I think I might be one of the most pumped people about it.” Edler, a Northwestern alumnus, earned twice as much NFR money as Anderson, won the NFR average title and claimed the steer wrestling world title. “We practice together all the time,” Anderson said of Edler. “We practiced our butts off for years, but especially the last two months leading up to this thing. Jacob didn’t get this given to him by accident. He damn sure earned it.” That’s the same for Anderson. Just qualifying for the NFR is a big deal, especially in 2020 with the schedule reduced and the competition as strong as ever. He placed in just three years, including a share of the second-round title, and gained more from the experience than he would have imagined heading in. “I don’t thing we necessarily did our job quite to the expectation of what we could have,” he said. “I learned what it takes to win a world championship. We’re going to go home and work our tail off until we are in a spot to do that. I won more money than I have in my life, and I learned exactly what it takes to be great. That’s what we’re going to focus on right now. “You’ve got to strive to be the best, but only one guy gets to be the best every year.” At just 22 years old, Anderson will have plenty more chances to be the best.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Jess Pope just picked up the biggest paycheck of his life, earning $170,417 for 10 days work at the National Finals Rodeo and winning the bareback riding average title. Don’t look for him to settle for anything. He was raised around hard work, and that’s going to continue. He left Arlington on Sunday en route to his Waverly, Kansas, home, where he will do some day work for people in his part of the Sunflower State. He’ll also go back to work at the local sale barn every Wednesday during his Christmas break from Missouri Valley College, where he is a senior. “My goal was to win the average,” said Pope, who rode Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Uncapped for 89.5 points to finish second in the 10th round of the NFR; that was worth $20,731. “It’s a marathon, not a spring. I just win in there and did it. It’s like what they say, ‘Dream it, do it, own it.’ I dreamed it up and ran with it.” It was a dream come true for the 22-year-old cowboy. He finished the season with $220,029 and capped his incredible campaign third in the world standings. “It shows that I was the guy at the NFR this year,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what he got on, he rode them all the same. He rode the buckers the same way he rode the ‘hoppers.’ (Saturday) night when I went to bed, I thought about all 10 horses I got on. There’s not one thing different I’d want to do on all of them. I was really strong on everything. I feel like I had a great finals.” He did. He was second in NFR earnings, finishing about $12,000 behind world champion Kaycee Feild, who earned his fifth gold buckle. Pope leaves Globe Life Field with life-changing money and a boatload of confidence. “To show up at the NFR and beat the top 15 guys when they’re supposed to be on top of their game is amazing, and it helps my confidence a lot,” Pope said. Those are the best horses you get on all year long and do it in 10 days in a row. I went in there and realized I can do it. “It’s just the beginning for me.” Until his next rodeo, though, he’ll still build on his work ethic. When he’s not doing day work or helping at the sale barn, he’ll be working out and dreaming about bucking horses. “There’s a lot more to my life than just rodeo,” he said. “I don’t even know the next rode I’m going to go to. I’m going to go home and do the stuff I love. I’m not the kind of guy to just sit at the house. I’m going to go about my life like I did before.”

ARLINGTON, Texas – Bareback rider Tim O’Connell did everything he could during the 10th round of the National Finals Rodeo to win his fourth world championship. He rode Powder River Rodeo’s Two Buck Chuck for 89 points and had to wait out a re-ride by his closest opponent, Utahan Kaycee Feild. The decision didn’t rest on O’Connell’s performance, though. Feild was awarded 91 points on Three Hills Rodeo’s Junior Bonner to win the round and the world championship at Globe Life Field. But O’Connell had no reason to hang his head. He fought a brilliant 10-round bout to claim the Montana Silversmiths gold buckle. Instead, his big score was worth third in the round, and he fell to third in the average. He also finished as the No. 2 man in the world standings. Through 10 nights of ProRodeo’s championship event, the Zwingle, Iowa, cowboy placed six times, including the fourth-round victory after matching moves with Fettig Pro Rodeo’s Pop A Top for 90.5 points. He left Globe Life Field with $148,064 in NFR earnings and finished the campaign with $270,991. He was just $6,657 behind Feild. While there was disappointment in the air, O’Connell proved again why he will continue to be a contender for the world title each year. The NFR features only the best 15 cowboys from the regular season, and 2020 was his seventh straight trip to the sport’s premier event. He won three-straight gold buckles from 2016-’18. An injury suffered on the final night of his final championship cost him to miss much of the 2019 campaign. He battled for three months to advance to the NFR, where he and other bareback riders were met with a buzz saw named Clayton Biglow, who claimed the crown. Of his seven trips to the finale, O’Connell has finished among the top 5 six times. With him coming within a whisker of this year’s gold buckle, there’s a new fire that is being built as he prepares for the 2021 campaign. A key bright spot that appeared was his traveling partner – Jess Pope, a senior at Missouri Valley College – claimed the NFR average title. Now the two will venture into the next campaign with bright light shining on next year’s NFR and another shot at ProRodeo’s gold.