Looking back at 1995 Dodge National Circuit Finals
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Due to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo slated for April 2-4 in Kissimmee, Fla., has been postponed.
While the 2020 RAM NCFR is on hold, ProRodeo Sports News took a moment to look back 25 years ago this week at the 1995 Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo, a rodeo that was littered with future ProRodeo Hall of Famers.
Payout for the 1995 Dodge NCFR, which was in Pocatello, Idaho, March 15-18, was $359,200 (about $609,693 in 2020 accounting for inflation) – the highest in Dodge NCFR history at the time.
RELATED: Updated status of scheduled rodeos
The 1995 Dodge NCFR winners were all-around cowboy Speed Williams, bareback rider Deb Greenough, steer wrestler Bob Barthle, team ropers Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper, saddle bronc rider Chance Dixon, barrel racer Kristie Peterson, and bull rider Myron Duarte.
The Texas Circuit won top team honors for the second consecutive year, earning $53,518.
Williams partnered with Rich Skelton in 1997, and they rodeoed into history together. The pair won eight consecutive team roping world titles and were inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2018.
Greenough, a 1993 PRCA bareback riding world champion, was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2018.
Team ropers Barnes and Cooper were inducted into the Hall in 1997 after winning seven world championships together (1985-89, 1992 and 1994).
Powder River Rodeo’s Khadafy Skoal was chosen top Dodge NCFR bareback horse for the fifth time in eight appearances at the rodeo.
Khadafy Skoal was the first Wyoming-born-and-raised horse to be voted PRCA Bareback Horse of the Year in 1990 and went on to win the award for Powder River Rodeo in 1995 and 1996. Starting in 1989, the blue roan gelding went to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo 16 consecutive years and was voted Horse of the NFR in 1994, 1996 and 1999.
He also competed in 15 Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeos and 12 Mountain States Circuit Finals Rodeos before being retired at the 2004 Wrangler NFR to the grassy fields of Riverton, Wyo., with his lifelong friend Skoal’s Frontier.
Khadafy Skoal was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2012.
–PRCA
