RODEO; Rodeo's Breakthrough Star Retires at 32
In this golden age of sports on television, rodeo has, if anything, become even more obscure, falling behind as newer entries like skateboading elbow their way into the lineup. It is an impossible sport to follow, even for the determined. There are 700 rodeos a year, in every nook and cranny of the country. About 1,200 cowboys compete in them.
To the general population, only one name in the sport ever broke through the obscurity: Ty Murray.
And yesterday, he retired.
At 32, Murray is taking his seven all-around world championships, his record $3 million in winnings and his label as King of the Cowboys and ending a 14-year career that brought his sport just about all the attention it has gotten. ''I wanted to quit while I was still a world championship contender,'' Murray said yesterday by telephone from his ranch in Stephenville, Tex. ''I didn't want to be one of those guys who people said should have quit five years ago.''
Murray's spot in history has long been secured -- he was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame two years ago -- and Murray the competitor has been sharing space with Murray the icon ever since he won six all-around world titles in a row from 1989 to 1994.
For the past three years, he has concentrated on the Professional Bull Riding Tour, which he helped found in 1996, to highlight the best bull riders and save them from the 700-rodeo grind that makes the sport so difficult.
But it was Murray's spectacular run of success in the National Finals Rodeo in the early 1990's that vaulted him and his modest ''aw, shucks'' persona into prominence. Nightly highlight shows found time for him between mainstream sports clips. National sports magazines took notice. Sponsors took notice. So did, eventually, his current girlfriend, the pop singer Jewel.
''I've read that I'm the 'Michael Jordan of rodeo' thousands of times,'' Murray said. ''But I always just worried about getting better at my craft, about doing my job well, making sure I put every bit of effort and heart into every ride. If I did that, the money and the titles and the accolades and notoriety and whatever else, they would all stem from that.''
Murray won his all-around titles by dominating rodeo's harshest events: bull, bareback and saddle bronc riding. Injuries took their toll. There was a four-year gap between his sixth and seventh world all-around titles because of them. This season he has battled hand and shoulder problems.
But Murray said he had simply lost the drive to train as hard as he always had, to do all the traveling and all the competing necessary to stay at the top of the sport he has dominated since he broke in as an 18-year-old in 1988.
''He was a combination of a great athlete who could do everything in the sport and just a good guy,'' said Steve Hatchell, commissioner of the Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association. ''That's why he was so popular.''
He also tried to use his own popularity to improve rodeo. Like most top competitors, Murray believed the best cowboys should not have to travel to hundreds of events every year to earn enough to live and to qualify for the National Finals. He believed there should be a small circuit for the top riders, with higher purses, making the sport easier for fans to follow and easier for athletes to pursue.
''People don't go out to watch golf,'' Murray said. ''They go out to watch Tiger Woods. People don't go out to watch basketball. They go to watch Michael Jordan. People want to see the best of the best. Rodeo is a hard sport for people to grab onto.''
In rodeo, going to see the best was going to see Murray. He used his star power to help start the Pro Bull Riding Tour: fewer events for fewer riders who make more money at it. Murray earned more than $1 million in just over six seasons on the tour. The rest of the sport is trying to follow suit, trying to organize bigger events with better competitors that attract television exposure.
Most years, Murray would appear on television only once, at the National Finals Rodeo. ''That just tells you about his huge popularity,'' Hatchell said. ''He did it without any of the things we're trying to do now, without any TV exposure.''
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