Wednesday Mini Mag

National Finals Rodeo Pays Big Money To Kansas Qualifiers By Frank J. Buchman

Kansas contestants collected major paychecks at the recent National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Arlington, Texas. Lighting the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association scoreboard, the brightest was Jess Pope, 22-year-old bareback bronc rider from Waverly. In his first NFR appearance, the five-foot-ten, 170-pound cowboy earned the privilege to compete ranking 11 th in regular season standings. Prior to the first NFR go-round, Pope had won $49,612 riding bareback broncs this year. When the curtain closed at the 2020 NFR, Pope had a total of $220,028 in his pocketbook. That put him third in the PRCA yearend bareback bronc riding standings. Qualifying on all ten of his bareback broncs at the NFR, Pope scored 853

points to win the average worth $67,269 alone.

Collecting checks in five go-rounds, his biggest earnings came in the eighth round when he netted $26,231. Pope matched moves with Calgary Stampede’s Xplosive Skies for 89 points to win the round. “It is pretty awesome to win a round here,” Pope said. “It makes you smile all day long. It’s very humbling making me quite grateful.

“My main goal going into the victory lap was to not fall off the horse. Another bronc rider yelled at me right before we went around: ‘Just don’t fall off.’ That was really fun, and I can’t even put it into words.”