Kirk Richard is a 33-year-old Louisiana bronc rider who's never been among the world's top 15 money winners. He says 1994 seems to be his best year so far - he's somewhere in the top 25. "I'm staying healed up," he said. "I rodeoed a little harder and got some money put up to where I could go to some (rodeos).
"But," says Richard, even in this "best" year, "if I wasn't doing no good after this weekend, I was going to go back home," to Sulphur, La.Richard, a bricklayer when not riding, didn't do well Saturday or Sunday at rodeos in Nampa (Idaho) and Salinas (Calif.).
And Monday night in the Delta Center didn't look all that promising for an unknown like Richard.
In the seventh and final 1994 performance of the Days of '47 Rodeo, the field Richard was up against the top four 1994 money-winners in bareback riding in the whole PRCA - Marvin (two-time world champ) and Mark Garrett, Ken Lensegrav and '93 world champion Deb Greenough.
Richard, however, is not heading home to Louisiana today.
"I got a good horse," Richard said of a bareback bronc named Sadie. "A lot of wild action, and he kicked out real good. That's what they (judges) like to see." Richard had the same horse about a month ago at Flagstaff (Ariz.) and scored pretty well (75).
Monday, the score was 83 - best score in bareback through all seven rodeo performances, earning Richard $3,992.52, and sending him off to rodeos in Ogden and Cheyenne on a roll. "This will help," he said. "I can stay out here."
There were lots of big-name cowboys on the program for Monday night's Days of '47 finale, but most of the night's winners were guys like Richard, who aren't among the PRCA's top 15 moneywinners or National Finals Rodeo regulars.
Richard's 83 beat the 80 by Mark Garrett and a 77 by Robert Soileau, another Louisianan. Marvin Garrett, the current PRCA leader, had 70, No. 3 Lensegrav 72 and Greenough, fourth in season standings, 71.
Same thing in bull riding as little-known Utah cowboys swept 1-2-3 and were, in fact, the only riders to stay on for the full eight seconds, even though the field included No. 2 '94 PRCA earner Clint Branger and No. 5 Scott Breding. It was to have included two-time world champion Jim Sharp, but the bull he was to ride, Cream Puff, fell ill before the rodeo, and Sharp withdrew rather than ride the replacement.
The winner in the last event of the Days of '47 Rodeo for '94 was 30-year-old Riverton house framer Ken Stillman, who scored 77 on Bull No. 95.
"I know the bull pretty good. I've been around him a lot," said Stillman, who'd never ridden 95. The bull did all its bucking close to the chutes, something cowboys like because it's right in front of the judges.
Stillman says his house-framing business is "real busy," and he doesn't go to as many rodeos as he used to. He used to hit about 65 year but is down to about 35. He's never made the NFR or the top 15 list, but riding bulls "gets in your blood. You can't leave it, especially when you can pick up a big check once in a while."
Completing Monday's Utah bull-riding sweep were West Haven's J.C. Sanders and Randlett's Shane Frost with 75s. Frost is cousin of the late Lane Frost, '87 world champ killed in 1989 by a bull at Cheyenne's Frontier Days.
For the seven performances, Albertan Jayson Keeley's bull-riding score of 81 was the highest total, and he picked up $5,624.85. In all, there were 96 bull riders entered in the Days of '47.
Event by event Monday night fell into pattern with top-15 cowboys losing out to lesser-knowns.
Joe Butterfield of Red Deer, Alberta, won calf roping in 8.4 seconds; Jeff Medlin (New Mexico) and Rue Woolsey (Arizona) set an arena record in team roping with a time of 4.4 seconds, even with the PRCA's top two teams (Clay O'Brien Cooper/Jake Barnes and Speedy Williams/Brad Culpepper) competing in the same field; Bill Pace of Montgomery, Ala., won bulldogging (4.3 seconds).
Neil Barg, a 23-year-old from St. Anthony, Idaho, rode Roany Wiggles to 79 in saddle bronc to tie four-time world champ Brad Gjermundson for the night's best with defending world champion Dan Mortensen taking fourth for the night behind Butch Small, the current No. 4 moneywinnner. Also in the saddle bronc field were top 15 members Rod and Denny Hay, Rod Warren and Skeeter Thurston. Roany Wiggles on Friday had carried Idaho's Kent Cooper to the overall high score for the Days of '47, an 83.
In barrel racing, Reno's Lita Scott Price had the best time Monday, 14.03 seconds, tied for sixth overal in the rodeo. Santaquin's Barbara Merrill had the best time of seven sessions, 13.83, to win $2,688.