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By Rosemary Pollock
RM Seeks Repeat World Bull Riding Title
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Cody Hancock, winner of last year's Pro Rodeo Cowboys
Association World Bull Riding title, will compete in the Wrangler National
Finals Rodeo at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, currently running
through Dec. 16. Hancock realized at the age of 5 that "all I ever wanted to
be was a world champion bull rider."
Twila and Ray Hancock and their six children have always been involved with
the rodeo life. "All my brothers (except the youngest) have rode bulls or
bareback horses or been in rodeoing somehow," Cody Hancock said. "It's just
kind of what we do in my family. Instead of play football or something, we
rodeo."
"I'd beg to go to every rodeo I could," said Hancock. Sometimes driving
1,000 miles with his dad from their 2-acre eastern Arizona home in Taylor.
Hancock earned his Eagle Scout and also enjoyed baseball, football and
wrestling at Snowflake High School. Eventually frustrated by little play
time, Ray Hancock said, "I decided to teach him something where he didn't
have to have a coach."
Hancock served a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in Philadelphia and soon realized that city life was not
for him. "I didn't know there was places like that in America, that many
people living in such a confined area," Hancock said. "It was really
intimidating at first, but it helped me to grow up. I though about riding
bulls every day and wanted to be home. But riding is so much mental that it
helped me as a person to get stronger before I was put in that atmosphere."
Hancock and his wife Rinda are the parents of 15-month-old daughter Tyree
and are currently building a house on 5 acres south of Taylor. He competes
in as many as 115 rodeos a year and is just as happy at home in Taylor or
breaking colts. "When I was little I dreamed about going to the NFR, because
that's all there was." he said. "I think PRCA is still the hardest thing to
win. When you go to the NFR and ride seven or eight out of 10 bulls at that
caliber of bulls, you know you can ride with anybody."
Source:
The ride of his life
Phoenix AZ Republic 2Dec01 S2
By Jeff Metcalfe: The Arizona Republic
Don't teach the boy to ride bulls. Promise me, Ray.
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