Bull riding: Bolton takes big step with CBR title

Odessa College athletic director John Wilfert is going to have to make some more room in the Wrangler Room trophy case.

Bonner Bolton, formerly of the Wranglers rodeo team, capped the 2007 Championship Bull Riding season Saturday with a 94.5 ride aboard The Air Up There, which was good enough to win the two-day event at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

It also earned Bolton a new tagline — world champion.

Heading into Las Vegas in fourth place in the standings, Bolton rode all three bulls over the weekend to earn more than $54,000 and enough points to leapfrog the three riders in front of him for the crown.

“My good friend, Caleb Robinson, was leading and I didn’t think that I was close enough in points to catch him,” Bolton said. “I was just hoping to win the event and thankfully I got that accomplished.

“When they announced that I’d not only won the final, but the championship, too, it was a pretty incredible feeling.”

Bolton becomes the fourth bull rider for Odessa College rodeo coach Jim Watkins to win a world championship.

Watkins coached seven-time PRCA all-around world champion Ty Murray and bull riding world champions Jim Sharp and Jerome Davis.

Bolton competed for the Wranglers through the fall semester of 2007, but on his own dime. Knowing he was going to miss three of the short-gos at the college rodeos, Bolton talked with Watkins before the season about his CBR commitments.

“He came up to me and told me that he was going to have to miss some short-gos and to not put him on the rodeo team, so that I could use his scholarship money to help someone else out,” Watkins said. “He paid his own way to school, went to class and competed in the college rodeos and in the CBR.

“He’s a fantastic young man and a tremendous athlete who has been very blessed with lots of talent. Winning the world championship couldn’t have happened to a more deserving young man.”

The CBR was founded by former PRCA and Professional Bull Riders world champion Tuff Hedeman six years ago. Hedeman, who also was one of the founders of the PBR, was looking to get back to the grass roots of the sport after watching the PRCA and PBR grow exponentially over the last decade.

Some of the other riders involved are former world champions Cody Hancock, B.J. Schumacher, Dustin Elliott, Matt Austin and current PRCA title holder Wesley Silcox.

Bolton got involved at the end of the 2005 season when a friend entered him in the CBR event in Beaumont, which Bolton promptly won. That earned him the right to attended the world championships for 2005, but it wasn’t until the 2006 season that the Gardendale resident began competing on the circuit full time.

He earned a second berth in the world championships for 2006 and captured a round during the championship weekend, springboarding him into the 2007 season.

With a victory in Huron, S.D., in August and three other top-10 finishes, Bolton set himself up for his championship run in Las Vegas.

After riding Black Mamba on Friday and Rafter Jack in the second round Saturday, Bolton knew that he had a chance for the title when he saw his draw for the short-go. The Air Up There already had been ridden for a 93-point score by Corey Davis in the first round.

“(Davis) told me the bull was just awesome and that I would really like him and knew that I would get along good with him,” Bolton said. “I didn’t know what to expect because I didn’t see Corey’s ride on Friday, but that was probably a good thing because the bull did everything.

“When I was growing up, my dad always encouraged me to have the mindset of a world champion. But it actually hit me by surprise, because I didn’t know that I actually would be able to win the world championship when I went into the event. The main thing is that I made one of the best rides I’ve ever made in the last round.”