Dustin Elliott won the opening go-round of the Professional Bull Riders World Finals on Wednesday night by scoring an 89.25 on the Boyd/Floyd Bull Co. bull Hee Bee Gee Bee.
It was a great start to the postseason for the North Platte, Neb., cowboy, who moved his 2010 PBR earnings to $75,643. It also moved Elliott to 15th place in the Built Ford Tough Series points race with 5,241.50, about 5,500 behind world standings leader Austin Meier of Kinta, Okla.
It’s the first of two championship events in which the Oregon-born Elliott will compete this season — he also qualified for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo as one of the top 15 bull riders in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, where he earned more than $80,000 this season.
That’s a pretty salty year for the 2004 PRCA world champion, who had to be creative in his travel plans in order to compete for world titles in both organizations. And qualifying for the PBR World Finals and the NFR in the same season is an incredible feat in this day and age.
Can you name the last bull rider to qualify for both finales in the same season, and what year did that happen?
Comments (3)
Ted Harbin / October 27, 2010
I will take one of two answers. Both men made the PBR Finals and the NFR in the same year, and it’s been in the last decade.
Ted Stovin / October 28, 2010
Paulo Crimber in 2004
Ted Harbin / October 28, 2010
Congratulations to Ted Stovin, who correctly identified Paulo Crimber in 2004 as making the PBR World Finals and the NFR. He was one of two to have accomplished that feat in 2004, joining Cory Melton. Several top bull riders have done it, and in the 1990s, the list was long each year. But it’s been six years since anyone has done it.