Professional Bull Riders, Inc. is making its final stop on the 2010 Built Ford Tough Series Sat. and Sun. at Nationwide Arena.
Professional Bull Riders has more than 100 million viewers annually. Viewers watch more than 400 hours a year of the organization’s programming on NBC, CBS and networks around the world.
The 2010 bull riding season has been competitive. The first 27 events have produced 19 winners, the standings have changed 11 times and six riders have been ranked no. 1.
Austin Meier, ranked first in 2009, fan favorite J.B. Mauney and Chris Shivers are among the riders competing this coming weekend.
Shivers, 32, a Professional Bull Riding champion from Jonesville, La., holds two world titles. His hobbies include team-roping, hog-hunting and ranching.
“This event is just bull riding,” Shivers said. “It’s not a rodeo. There aren’t bucking horses, calf-roping or team-roping.”
Shivers was injured for most of 2007 with a herniated disk in his neck, a broken eye socket, broken cheekbone and broken nose, yet still qualified for the Professional Bull Riding finals, where his best Built Ford Tough Series standing was second place.
“It’s all just part of the job,” Shivers said. “If you want to play with the big bulls, you have to deal with the possibility that there are going to be injuries.”
Shivers has captured the hearts of fans around the country and has won the attention of national media. He has appeared on shows such as “The Best Damn Sports Show” and “The Today Show.”
Shivers is also the first of the organization’s riders to win more than $300,000 in one year, in 1998, and later the first to win more than $1 million (2001), $2 million (2003) and $3 million (2006).
