‘Prove I belong here’: Tie-down, team ropers honored as NFR Icons

The beginning of Joe Beaver’s legendary rodeo career goes hand in hand with Las Vegas becoming the home of rodeo’s grandest event.

At just 20 years old, Beaver qualified for his first National Finals Rodeo in 1985, the same year the event moved from Oklahoma City to the Thomas & Mack Center.

While many were upset at the move, Beaver said he was more caught up in the excitement of making his first NFR. But as he drove into town, Beaver said the imagery of Las Vegas made him realize the rodeo had made the right decision.

“I remember topping the hill and seeing all those lights and thinking, ‘This is how it’s supposed to be,’” Beaver recalled. “It’s supposed to be the glamour, the glitz and the glory, and here it is. You better take ahold of it and enjoy it because you never know if you’re going to make it once or 25 times.”

“I just remember rolling into town thinking I’ve made it,” Beaver added. “Now, I got to prove I belong here.”

The Texan did just that. Beaver emerged from 10 grueling rounds with the tie-down roping world title and Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Rookie of the Year title. Beaver went on to win five tie-down roping world titles and three all-around titles over three decades in Las Vegas.

Beaver will be honored as a Vegas NFR Icon at this year’s NFR in December, alongside the team-roping duo of Speed Williams and Rich Skelton.

“It’s all come full circle, and to be honored, that’s all you can ask for if you want a career that comes from the bottom and goes to the top,” Beaver said.

Williams and Skelton said it was only right that they would get inducted together. It makes sense given the run of dominance the two had. They won eight straight team roping world titles from 1997 to 2004.

“It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t have both of us at the same time because we worked at it as hard as anybody and we had the same goals. … Everything we did completed each other,” Skelton said.

Shock to the system

Beaver, born in Victoria, Texas, roped his whole life. He won his first championship at 10 years old in the Junior Rodeo Association, and in high school, Beaver moved up the amateur ranks.

Earlier in 1985, Beaver officially joined the PRCA at 19 years old. He said winning his first title that year was a little bit of a shock to himself and the system.

“Not a shock that I won it, but a shock that I was able to reach it,” Beaver said. “Back then, it wasn’t like now where you can win so much money at the Finals to where you could upset the guy in the lead very easily. There were those guys in each event that everybody thought were untouchable, and for me to walk in there, my first year being a rook and having fun and to win it, I think it shocked a lot of people.”

Beaver added back-to-back tie-down roping titles in 1987 and 1988 and won again in 1992 and 1993. He won his first all-around title in 1995 and won again in 1996.

But Beaver’s most impressive title was his final all-around title in 2000. After being injured and out of most of the rodeo competition in 1999, Beaver returned the following year and was atop the world standing after 10 days.

“It was a long time from ’85,” Beaver said. “I was an underdog, and it didn’t look like I had any chance at all. I wound up having a great week and winning the all-around championship for the third and final time.”

Dynamic duo

Williams came from a rodeo family and started his professional career as a heeler. When he qualified for NFR in 1988 at 20 years old, Williams, who’s from Jacksonville, Florida, said he realized there was a lot more room for opportunities as a header.

Skelton started as a header when he was a kid and eventually made the move as a heeler. The Electra, Texas, native’s first NFR was in 1990. The two came together in 1997, and it was instant magic.

“There will never be one that matches the first world title,” Williams said. “We had some hard-fought (title battles). The last one (in 2004) was special, and the fifth one (2001) was special. But the first one, going to the Finals as not the favorite, a new team together, it was just about going to the Finals, making some money and getting ready for next year.

“We had no idea that we were going to have as good of a Finals as we did the first year.”

Williams said having a good team roping team is “just like a marriage” with having compromise and working with one another’s strengths. Skelton credited Williams’ ability as a horseman and the duo’s commitment to the same goal for their run of dominance.

“You got to have the same goals,” Skelton said. “All we did was think about what we were going to do that day whether it was at a rodeo or practicing. We both had the same everything, and we were going in the same direction. That’s hard to do with two people and the same horses and everything. We were lucky.”

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.