NFR 2024: Joe Beaver, Speed ​​Williams and Rich Skelton Honored as NFR Icons | National Finals Rodeo | sport

The beginning of Joe Beaver’s legendary rodeo career coincides with Las Vegas becoming the home of rodeo’s greatest 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 about the move, Beaver said he was more preoccupied with the excitement of making his first NFR. But as he drove into town, Beaver said the images of Las Vegas made him realize the rodeo made the right decision.

“I remember climbing the hill and seeing all these lights and thinking, ‘This is how it’s supposed to be,'” Beaver remembers. “It’s supposed to be glamour, glitz and fame, and here it is. You better take it and enjoy it because you never know if you can do it once or 25 times.”

“I just remember rolling into town and thinking I made it,” Beaver added. “Now I have to prove that I belong here.”

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

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

“It comes full circle, and when you want a career that comes from the bottom and goes up, all you can ask for is an honor,” Beaver said.

Williams and Skelton said it was only right that they be inducted together. Given the dominance of the two, that makes sense. From 1997 to 2004, they won eight consecutive world team roping titles.

“It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t have both at the same time because we worked just as hard as everyone else and we had the same goals. … Everything we did complemented each other,” Skelton said.

Shock to the system

Beaver, born in Victoria, Texas, has been roping his entire life. He won his first Junior Rodeo Association championship at age 10, and in high school Beaver moved up to the amateur ranks.

In early 1985, Beaver officially joined the PRCA at the age of 19. He said winning his first title this year was a bit of a shock to him and the system.

“It wasn’t a surprise that I won it, but it was a surprise that I was able to achieve it,” Beaver said. “Back then it wasn’t like today where you could win so much money in the finals that it was very easy to upset the leader. Every competition had these guys that everyone thought were untouchable, and when I came in there, my first year as a tower, had fun and won it, I think it shocked a lot of people.”

Beaver won consecutive 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 last all-around title in 2000. After being injured in 1999 and unable to compete in most of the rodeo competition, Beaver returned the following year and was at the top of the world rankings after ten days.

“It was a long time from 1985,” Beaver said. “I was an outsider and it seemed like I had no chance at all. In the end I had a great week and won the all-around championship for the third and final time.”

Dynamic duo

Williams came from a rodeo family and began his professional career as a heeler. When he qualified for the NFR in 1988 at age 20, Williams, a native of Jacksonville, Florida, said he realized there was much more room for opportunity as a header.

Skelton started out as a header as a child and eventually transitioned to being a heeler. The Electra, Texas native’s first NFR took place in 1990. The two got together in 1997 and it was instantly magical.

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

“We had no idea we would have a final as good as the first year.”

Williams said having a good team roping team is “like a marriage,” where you compromise and work with each other’s strengths. Skelton credited Williams’ riding skills and the duo’s commitment to the same goal for his dominance.

“You have to have the same goals,” Skelton said. “We were just thinking about what we were going to do that day, whether it was a rodeo or a practice. We both had the same things and were heading in the same direction. It’s hard to do with two people and the same horses and everything. We were lucky.”

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