Mickey Gee won the PRCA steer wrestling world championship in 1999, winning the average title at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in the process.
He also claimed the NFR average title in 2003, the only other time the Wichita Falls, Texas, cowboy has played on ProRodeo’s grandest stage. That’s a pretty good winning percentage.
Gee returns to the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas this December for just the third time in his career, finishing the 2011 regular season 15th in the world standings. He earned his trip to the NFR by just $1,658 over the No. 16 bulldogger, Stan Branco of Chowchilla, Calif.
That takes me back to one of the top 30 events in ProRodeo’s regular season, the Lea County Fair and Rodeo in Lovington, N.M., one of the 24 events that were part of the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour. In the southeastern New Mexico community, Gee won the first go-round, then failed to collect another check.
Still, that $1,967 gave him just the cushion he needed to squeak into the NFR field. Now he just needs to take advantage of it in Sin City.