Published: November 10, 2008 08:41 am      

BRETT HOFFMAN: Moraes doesn't let pain stop him

LAS VEGAS ’ At the beginning of the year, three-time world champion Adriano Moraes announced that this would be his final season on the Professional Bull Riders circuit.

As the 38-year-old Brazilian competed on the PBR’s 2008 Built Ford Tough Series, fans formed long lines after performances to receive his autograph and Adriano T-shirts were hot items. Regardless of whether Moraes stayed on his bull for two seconds or the required eight, Moraes always drew cheers.

Moraes, who lives near Tyler, is competing in the association’s 15th World Finals this weekend and he was a big hit with fans last weekend when he stayed on two of three bulls, despite competing with a broken pinkie finger on his left (riding) hand.

Moraes fractured the finger in Columbus, Ohio, last month. A bull named Spit Fire threw Moraes off the left side almost immediately upon leaving the chute. Moraes was injured as he used his left hand to break the fall.

Doctors advised Moraes that if he were to ride again this season, the pressure would likely re-break the finger. But somehow, he figured out a way to be competitive at the World Finals after consulting with Dr. Tandy Freeman, the PBR’s longtime sports physician.

’Dr. Tandy numbed it and I didn’t feel any pain, so it’s OK,’ Moraes said of the finger. ’I mean, if you don’t feel pain, what the heck?’

Moraes said he relied on the rest of his fingers.

’It’s just one finger, the pinkie finger,’ Moraes said. ’Though it’s one of the most important fingers of your hand, I had four fingers that were good and no pain in that one, so everything was fine.’

The PBR World Finals’ second weekend of performances began Thursday and run through Sunday.

Moraes, whose PBR earnings are almost $3.5 million, won world titles in 1994, 2001 and 2006 and he has more gold buckles than any other PBR competitor.

Another big name who is retiring after competing in the World Finals is two-time world champion Justin McBride. He has earnings of $5,029,529, a record in any bull riding or rodeo association.

Headed to Dallas

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association/Women’s Professional Rodeo Association regular season concludes this weekend at the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour Championship in Dallas.

After the Sunday afternoon performance, the top 15 in each event, based on earnings throughout the regular season, will advance to the 50th National Finals Rodeo scheduled for Dec. 4-13 in Las Vegas.

The field of competitors ranges from three-time world bareback riding champion Will Lowe of Canyon to former National Finals Rodeo steer wrestling qualifier Cash Myers of Athens and former NFR barrel racing qualifier Lindsay Sears, a former Texas Tech star who has homes in Nanton, Alberta, and the West Texas town of Ropesville.

Sears, who is ranked No. 1 in the world title race, also qualified for the Canadian Finals Rodeo in Edmonton, Alberta, this weekend. But she opted to compete at the Dallas rodeo because earnings count toward a WPRA world title and earnings from the Canadian Finals do not.

Death of a legend

Harley May, a three-time world champion steer wrestler and member ProRodeo Hall of Fame, died Oct. 28 in his Santa Ana, Calif., home after a lengthy battle with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), according to the PRCA. He was 82.

One of the first college-educated rodeo cowboys, May entered the pro ranks after graduating from Sul Ross State College (Alpine, Texas) and won the first of his world championships as a Rodeo Cowboys

Association (RCA) rookie in 1952. He also claimed the title in 1956 and 1965.

May was raised on a Deming, N.M., ranch and won his first trophy saddle for winning a junior rodeo all-around title at 13. His dream of turning pro was temporarily put on hold when he enlisted for a three-year stint in the Army Air Corps and served in the South Pacific during World War II.

Upon discharge from the military, May returned to ranching. While plowing one day, Bill Rush, a local cowboy, pulled up. As May approached the big convertible and matching horse trailer, Rush told him he was hitting the rodeo trail, and asked May to come along.

’That was all it took,’ May said years later. ’I raced back to the house, threw some clothes in a suitcase and headed toward the rodeo in Silver City, N.M. I think I even left the tractor running!’

Brett Hoffman is a 20-year rodeo columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and a member of the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame. He can be reached at brett@myrodeoinsider.com.