{"id":25897,"date":"2020-11-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-named-presenting-sponsor-at-2020-national-finals-rodeo\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T09:24:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T14:24:20","slug":"tarleton-named-presenting-sponsor-at-2020-national-finals-rodeo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-named-presenting-sponsor-at-2020-national-finals-rodeo\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton Named Presenting Sponsor at 2020 National Finals Rodeo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday, NOvember 25, 2020<\/p>\n<p>STEPHENVILLE, Texas &mdash;&nbsp;Tarleton State University is the presenting sponsor for the Wednesday, Dec. 9, performance of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association National Finals Rodeo at Globe Life Field in Arlington.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the university will showcase Tarleton students and staff both at the FanZone activation area and at a booth in the Cowtown Christmas Exposition in the Fort Worth Stockyards during the entire NFR run Dec. 3-12.<\/p>\n<p>Fourteen National Finals qualifiers have ties to Tarleton &mdash; bareback riders Richmond Champion and Leighton Berry; saddle bronc riders Brody Cress, Jacobs Crawley and Isaac Diaz; tie-down ropers Haven Meged and Timber Moore; team roping heelers Shay Dixon Carroll and Paden Bray; breakaway ropers Jackie Crawford, Kirby Eppert and J.J. Hampton; steer wrestler Jace Melvin; and barrel racer Cheyenne Wimberley. All are past students except for Bray, who is a current student and a rodeo team member.<\/p>\n<p>The NFR is the PRCA&rsquo;s season-ending championship, widely acknowledged to be the world&rsquo;s premier rodeo. Held annually since 1959, it is professional rodeo&rsquo;s richest and most prestigious event.<\/p>\n<p>Usually held at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, the site was moved to Texas for 2020.<\/p>\n<p>One of the top programs in the nation, Tarleton&rsquo;s rodeo team has been part of a winning tradition since 1947. In its 73-year history, Tarleton has won seven national team championships and 28 individual national titles. One of the largest teams in the nation, Tarleton features 103 card-holding student members in 2019-2020.<\/p>\n<p>For more information about the event and Tarleton&rsquo;s NFR contestants visit&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/tarleton.edu.nfr\/\">tarleton.edu\/nfr.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&amp;M University System, provides a student-focused, value-driven education marked by academic innovation and a dedication to transform today&rsquo;s scholars into tomorrow&rsquo;s leaders. It offers degree programs to more than 14,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online, emphasizing real-world learning experiences that address societal needs while maintaining its core values of tradition, integrity, civility, excellence, leadership and service.<\/p>\n<p>Contact: Phil Riddle<br \/>817-484-4415<br \/><a href=\"mailto:priddle@tarleton.edu\">priddle@tarleton.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tarleton State University is the presenting sponsor for the Wednesday, Dec. 9, performance of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association National Finals Rodeo at Globe Life Field in Arlington.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[424,425],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-events","category-campus-community"],"acf":{"image":null},"author_meta":{"display_name":"keegan","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/keegan-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2021\/11\/image-279-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/category\/arts-events\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Arts &amp; Events<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/category\/campus-community\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Campus &amp; Community<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Arts &amp; Events<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Campus &amp; Community<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 25, 2020","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 25, 2020 12:00 am","modified":"Updated on October 7, 2025 9:24 am"},"featured_img_caption":"Rodeo rider in a purple vest and cowboy hat riding a bucking horse.","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25897"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53986,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25897\/revisions\/53986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}