Okie Doke

Gov. Brad Henry was in the Oklahoma Panhandle on Monday to help dedicate the Jack Begley Memorial Highway, a stretch of U.S. Highway 54 from the Texas line to the small town of Optima.

He also proclaimed Monday, Jan. 23, 2006, as Jack Begley Day. Family and friends surely were honored.

He gets to proclaim another day this weekend, when Friday, Jan. 27, 2006, will be honored as Justin McBride Day. Family and friends surely will be honored.

Of course, the latter surrounds the three-day Professional Bull Riders event at the Ford Center in downtown Oklahoma City, and it honors the 2005 PBR champion from the western Oklahoma burg of Elk City.

Yes, the PBR returns to Oklahoma City in what has become its only premier-tour event in the Sooner State this year. An event that was scheduled for Tulsa in July has been canceled. So this will be the PBR's Okie Doke for 2006. On the list of Okies scheduled to ride this weekend are McBride, J.W. Hart of Overbrook, Jody Newberry of Ada, Dan Henricks of Logan, Corey Navarre of Weatherford and Cody Whitney of Asher.

Out of the draw is Weatherford's Lee Akin. He and Navarre were cut in the PBR's first demotion of the new season, but Navarre is an injury replacement for Mike White of DeKalb, Texas. Every few events, the PBR rotates its bottom feeders and promotes the bull riders who are making a mark in the minor leagues. So my friends Corey and Lee are out of competition.

But don't count 'em out. They've been in this position before, and they have the work ethic to bust their butts to get back up to the major league level as soon as possible.

In speaking with Randy Bernard, the CEO of the bull riders' association, he figures this weekend's festivities will be the best event the PBR has ever had in Oklahoma City. It begins at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. All three performances will be televised -- Friday's show will be aired Saturday night on OLN; Saturday night's show will be broadcast Sunday afternoon on NBC; and Sunday afternoon's performance will be aired Sunday night on OLN.

At least, that's how I understand it.

I'd like to visit my friends and hang out behind the scenes, but I've got other obligations out of town. I'll have to settle for catching snippets here and there, maybe catching the final TV viewing on Sunday night.

But I'll also be makin' up for time missed with my honey, so forgive me if I TiVo the rodeo.

Missing in action

There's a lull, men. There's a lull. (Stolen from a cliche used by Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer when he coached the Kansas City Chiefs. "There's a gleem ...")

OK, so a few weeks back, I wrote about rodeo being cyclical. But this is as slow as it gets. The Professional Bull Riders is the only thing really going. This weekend, friends like Lee Akin and Corey Navarre and Cody Whitney and Justin McBride will take part in the event at Worcester, Mass. This is the third event of the 2006 season, and ol' Justin's defending his first PBR title.

The PBR comes back to the fair state of Oklahoma just once this season, and it might not be the best stand-alone bull-riding event in the Sooner State this month. You see, up until last year, the PBR was associated with the Lazy E Arena. But the two split, and bitter pills were swallowed on both sides. The Lazy E was owned by E.K. Gaylord II, part of the Oklahoma family known for once owning Opryland, TNN, The Oklahoman newspaper, etc.

I won't go into it in great detail here, but suffice it to say that Bullnanza at the Lazy E Arena was established in 1989, and the PBR was founded in 1994. Bullnanza always took place at the arena northeast of Oklahoma City around the last weekend of January or the first weekend in February. Even though it wasn't associated with Bullnanza any longer, the PBR signed an agreement to have its event at the Ford Center that weekend, and Bullnanza -- which is now in with the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association -- kept that weekend, too.


Needless to say, rodeo and bull-riding fans were left with a dilemma: Go to the PBR's "new" event at the downtown arena, or go back to the Lazy E, where they'd been going for 16 years? It was a giant mess, I'll tell you that.

The PBR returns to the Ford Center the last weekend of January. But as I said, it might not be the best event in Oklahoma this year.

Bullnanza has moved up its dates this year. It will take place Jan. 13-14 at the Lazy E Arena. Its participants will be the top bull riders from the PRCA, not the PBR. But that's where you'll see Matt Austin, the 2005 world champ, and all those other fellas that were at the NFR just a month ago.

I promise you it'll be a good show, so if you're up to it, I'd recommend that venture next weekend. The Lazy E was built for steer roping and other rodeo events, but it has produced bull-riding events longer than anyone going. The company, Lazy E Productions, did five Bullnanzas last year, in addition to regular stuff that happens at the arena.

It has a new ownership -- Gaylord sold the Lazy E just recently -- but I know the people in charge of the production, and they know their task.

Enjoy the PBR on TV this weekend, then watch a better show in person next weekend at the Lazy E. Heck, you might even see me squattin' around there. It's been known to happen.