Ablestock

Charly Crawford had to start from the bottom.

The veteran team roper was a distant 63rd in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world standings in June, and he logged that fact on his cellphone as motivation each morning to wake up and head to the gym. When his alarm went off at 5 a.m., his phone displayed the number “63.”

“Just putting a little note right there as a reminder to get me up,” Crawford says. “That would get me out of bed pretty quick. It kind of motivated me to keep working at it, and keep working at the little things.”

Crawford, a longtime Prineville resident who now lives in Stephenville, Texas, boasted an incredible summer of results as a header with partner Joseph Harrison, a heeler from Overbrook, Oklahoma. Crawford, 39, vaulted into 15th place among headers in the world standings by the end of the season (Sept. 30) to just barely qualify for the National Finals Rodeo.

The top 15 money winners in each PRCA event qualify for the NFR, set for Dec. 7-16 in Las Vegas.

Crawford earned $74,206, and Harrison earned $78,447 to finish 12th in the heeler standings. The two will compete together at the national finals.

A Canby native, Crawford — who has more than $1 million in PRCA career earnings — will compete in his ninth NFR and his first since 2014.

“It’s good to be back,” he says.

During his summertime run, Crawford won the St. Paul Rodeo in Oregon, the Oakley Independence Day Rodeo in Utah and the Corn Palace Stampede in South Dakota. He was co-champion at the Guymon (Oklahoma) Pioneer Days Rodeo.

He had to start out from near the bottom of the standings because he competed on the fledgling Elite Rodeo Athletes (ERA) tour last year instead of the PRCA circuit, and therefore he had no PRCA earnings.

The ERA — which debuted in Redmond in March 2016 — was formed as what the ERA hoped would be a supplement to the PRCA. But that changed when the PRCA enacted new bylaws in late 2015 that excluded ERA shareholders, including several Central Oregon cowboys. Approximately 80 of the top cowboys and cowgirls in pro rodeo formed the ERA as a sort of all-star tour in an attempt to raise the profile of their sport for both fans and competitors, allowing many of the best riders to compete against each other while limiting travel for the contestants.

But the new organization struggled, and it canceled its final three tour stops of the 2016 season last fall due to anticipated poor attendance. The abbreviated ERA tour included just five stops. The ERA canceled the 2017 season, and it remains to be seen whether the league will continue in 2018.

Meanwhile, Crawford and the other ERA cowboys were able to compete in PRCA rodeos this season.

“We did what we could,” Crawford says of the ERA. “We put a year into it to see if it could get off the ground. That was the main goal. None of us were going to be rich out of doing it because there was no way to do both. We’re just hoping that maybe a year of sacrifice might spark something to make it better for the next generation, and that was the main goal.

“But this year to kind of get back to rodeoing again, I was kind of craving it.”

Crawford’s wife, Jackie Crawford, is a three-time all-around champion in the Women’s Pro Rodeo Association. This past spring, just before Crawford commenced his climb up the team-roping standings, the couple welcomed their first child together, son Creed Crawford. Charly also has a 13-year-old daughter, Kaydence, from a previous relationship.

Charly was home for Creed’s birth but back on the rodeo road after only a few days.

“I was happy to go to a lot of the little rodeos and kind of get requalified for everything,” Crawford says. “It was a great spring. And we just had a great season … had a great summer.”

Crawford was born and raised in Canby before moving to Prineville after college when his father, Chuck Crawford, moved there. Chuck got Charly started in rodeo at a young age, and Charly was always around some of the biggest names in pro rodeo. Among them was Mike Beers, a longtime resident of Powell Butte and a ProRodeo Hall of Famer, who was a big influence on Crawford.

Crawford attended Beers’ roping schools, which gave the young cowboy a chance to work with some of the best team-roping headers in the world. He even partnered with Beers in team roping early in his career in 2004.

“Just being around it and being around them, it was just something I always wanted to do,” Crawford says of rodeo. “I never dreamt I’d make it nine times (to the NFR) and be doing it for a livin’, so it worked out pretty good.”

Chuck Crawford schooled his son on horsemanship, which “helped me kind of keep my longevity,” Charly says.

Crawford’s best seasons thus far were 2006 and 2009; in both years he finished seventh in the world standings. This year he is preparing for the NFR in a practice pen set up much like the Thomas & Mack Center at the NFR, with the same box measurements and width.

“Preparation is key, so we’ll put ourselves in every situation we can here in the practice pen,” he says. “And hopefully when we get out there we’ll be hitting on all cylinders.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0318,

mmorical@bendbulletin.com

“It was just something I always wanted to do. “I never dreamt I’d make it nine times (to the NFR) and be doing it for a livin’, so it worked out pretty good.”— Charly Crawford