Riding first class/ Hancock's childhood dream comes true after 20

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Aug 9, 2001 | by John Branch

It took 20 years for Cody Hancock to truly believe in his dream. But when it happened, it happened in just a couple of 8-second bursts.

"It's a dream, but you don't know if it will ever happen or if it's ever going to come true," the 25-year-old said. "But since I was five, all I wanted to be was the world champion bull rider."

Eight months ago, he didn't know if it would ever happen, if it was ever going to come true - until it did.

The National Finals Rodeo each December takes only the top 15 competitors in each event. The rankings are by money earned that year, and Hancock and his $56,228 got in for the first time. Barely.

A $1,500 payday on the final weekend of the rodeo season pushed him into 15th place. No. 16 - it might as well be No. 216, except, of course, the money's better - was left to watch from the wrong side of the fence, short $400.

Hancock got to Las Vegas, flipped open the program that 17,000 spectators see. Through the section summarizing the bull-riding season, he found the names of 14 competitors. There was no mention of No. 15, only a mug shot and some vital stats to prove he was there.

The only publicity he got was a story in the paper in Taylor, Ariz., where he lives.

"Nobody gave me credit," he said with a smile. His teeth are perfectly spaced about a centimeter apart, like a happy jack-o- lantern who just got his braces off.

"I had nothing to lose when I got there. I was just trying to have fun, make a little money. But things change in a hurry."

The National Finals has 10 rounds, on successive nights, with paydays that blow away anything else on the circuit. Hancock won the first night. He moved from 15th place to fifth. He won the second night. He moved from fifth place to first.

After two days, he had gone from off the planet to top of the world.

"It hit me, as far as the pressure goes," Hancock said. "I backed off my third bull. But I rode my next four, and I won the seventh round."

When it ended, he had earned $83,355 in 10 days. It pushed his yearly earnings to $139,583, about $4,500 more than Philip Elkins.

Hancock was world champion. He has the gold belt buckle to prove it - not to anybody else, but to himself, when he wakes up in the middle of the night and struggles, for a moment, to disseminate between dreams and reality.

Hancock has lived both sides of the equation. He finished 16th in the standings two years ago. The cowboy immediately in front of Hancock, in 15th place, had earned $80 more than him over the course of 100 rodeos and 100,000 miles of travel.

Bull riding is different, and not just because it takes someone with a combination of strength, agility and lunacy. Hopping on the back of an angry steer isn't natural, not in the way riding horses is.

Hancock has been knocked unconscious a few times this year, and his chin has a purple scar thanks to 30 stitches in June, when a bull "whooped me down," Hancock said, and the two smacked heads. The bull won. The bull always wins.

"Everyone comes to watch the bull riding," he said. "That's why it's the last event. The announcer will ask the crowd if they're ready for the bull riding, and they'll play some rock 'n roll music, and the crowd will go nuts."

The goose bumps rise, even though the rodeo is 2 hours from starting.

"I still get a rush out of it."

No, bull riding is different because of how the money works, too. Because bull riding is inherently so difficult - the best in the world might make it the full 8 seconds 70 percent of the time - the riders put up extra money on top of their entry fee.

Called "day" money, it's a pool of cash spread between the riders who stay on their bull that night, regardless of their score. If everyone pitches in $100, and five of the 15 bull riders make it a full 8 seconds, those five will split the $1,500.

"It's because it's so hard to get one ride," Hancock explained, "but it can get you to the next event."

Hard not to think about that $80 back in 1999. Hancock competed in 100 rodeos that year, trying to crack the top 15.

"So if I had just ridden one more bull, pretty much anywhere, I probably would have gotten in," Hancock said.

But that might have changed everything. Maybe he would have remained stuck in 15th after 10 nights in Las Vegas. Maybe he wouldn't have been as hungry the next year. Maybe he wouldn't have become the second competitor, and the first in the rough-stock category, to ever move from 15th to first at the National Finals.

Or maybe he would have won it all. A boy can dream.

- John Branch may be reached at jbranch@gazette.com