I walked through the executive offices of the Thomas & Mack Center for the first time 23 years ago as the rodeo beat writer for The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.

I was ignorant of the ways things worked at my first National Finals Rodeo. I arrived from my hotel in what I thought was plenty of time. Little did I know the cluster it would be to just obtain my credentials, much less find the media room and get set for that night’s performance. I was so late that I ended up doing an interview with the late Ricky Huddleston during the national anthem.

The rodeo began at 7 p.m. Pacific, which is 9 p.m. Central, and I had a deadline half an hour after the first horse bucked. I wrote quickly and met the deadline while packed with a couple dozen other reporters and photographers at a smallish room in the guts of the arena.

That room is now the “Contestants Lounge,” and I pass by it on my walk from the entrance to the UNLV auxiliary gym, where the Runnin’ Rebels practice. The 2001 go-rounds paid $13,522 to the winners of each event; this year’s nightly winners will collect $33,687.

Much has changed over the last two and a half decades of ProRodeo’s Super Bowl, but the passion for it remains. Whether they’re one of 120 combatants in the field or the 17,000-plus fans or the millions watching on national TV, the love affair with rodeo is as strong as ever.

It’s the ride of the year, and it’s 10 days long.