“Tuf”

 

Roy Cooper is an eight time PRCA World Champion cowboy. He is credited with changing the sport of calf roping. Roy set records in the 1970s that still stand today. One statistic I remember well is that one year in the 1980s Roy Cooper won money at over ninety percent of the rodeos he entered.

Roy Cooper has three boys, Clint, Cliff and Tuf. Tuf is the youngest of the boys. Tuf is also named after Roy’s dad, Dale “Tuffy” Cooper. Clint and Cliff have had success in the rodeo arena. Tuf is a four time world champion. He has had the greatest success of the Cooper boys.

About twenty years ago when Tuf and Cliff were young teenagers they would show up to some of the ropings I went to. Tuf won a roping in Decatur, Texas one day, he tied calves in seven seconds and wasn’t even old enough to drive. I remember thinking that day, that he was living up to his grandad’s name, “Tuffy.”

This year Tuf was way down in the PRCA world standings most of the season. I didn’t think he would qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in December. They only take the top fifteen money earners to the finals. Most of the year Tuf was not in the top fifteen.

The PRCA season ends September 30 and at the beginning of September Tuf was not in the top fifteen.

This year in the last two weeks of the season, Tuf Cooper did what is almost impossible, he placed at almost every rodeo he entered. It was reminiscent of when his dad was in his prime.

The Pendleton Roundup in Pendleton, Oregon is one of the last big rodeos of the PRCA season. For many PRCA cowboys it’s kind of the last hope for making the finals if they are near that fifteenth spot in the world standings.

Tuf won almost twenty percent of his total 2023 earnings in the last two weeks of September.

To recap-

September 13-16 Tuf Cooper won $6556 at Pendleton.

September 22-23 he won $2248 and $1073 at Poway, California and Omaha, Nebraska respectively.

He also won $2735 at Springhill, Louisiana that week.

September 23-24 he won $1350 at Sonoma, California and $3196 at San Bernardino, California.

The 27th and 28th of September he won $389 and $534 at Cumberland, Maine.

He won $2420 and $1134 on September 29-30 at Edmonton, Alberta and Mona, Utah.

During the last two weeks of the PRCA season Tuf Cooper won $21,635, again almost twenty percent of his earnings for the entire PRCA season. He ended with a total of $111,758 for the year.

I have watched Tuf Cooper rope for twenty years. This year has been one of my favorite years though. Like John Elway or Tom Brady he came through in the fourth quarter. These past couple of weeks Tuf won when he had too.

Tuf Cooper is closer to the end of his rodeo career than he is to the beginning. He’s been in contention for several World Championships up to the tenth and final round of the National Finals Rodeo and fell short. I’ve watched him perform under pressure for years. This year was different though. This year it was do or die those last two weeks if the season. My hat’s off to him. It’s hard to book that many flights, make arrangements for horses to compete on and still win money at almost every rodeo he went to. The best compliment I can think of is that his grandpa is smiling down at him. I look forward to watching Tuf compete at the NFR this December.

James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.