Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2000 | 9:41 a.m.
Legendary bull rider Ty Murray may be the headliner, but a pair of former UNLV cowboys will be looking to steal the show in this weekend's $1.5 million Professional Bull Riders Bud Light Cup World Championships.
Justin McBride and Ross Coleman both were members of the UNLV rodeo team in 1998 and are among the top 45 bull riders in the world who qualified for the four-day event, which begins Thursday night and runs through Sunday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
McBride, 21, was the third-place qualifier for the World Championships with more than $135,000 in earnings while Coleman, 21, qualified sixth with more than $108,000.
McBride and Coleman have maintained their friendship since their UNLV rodeo days and Coleman said he is looking forward to his second appearance at the World Championships.
"This is the best place to be this time of year," Coleman said. "This is why we ride bulls all year, to make the finals.
"I barely made (the World Championships) last year, so this year is lots better than last year, I guarantee you. Last year I didn't ride as good and I felt more confident about myself this year. Everything kind of went a little bit smoother this year for me."
Coleman has fond memories of his brief stay in Las Vegas and said he would like to add to those memories this weekend.
"I went through a year of college at UNLV and rodeoed for the Rebels," Coleman said. "We had a lot of support from (local casino owner) Michael Gaughan and we had a real good program here.
"It was a pretty good place to go to college and now it would be nice to come back and have a good finals."
With more than $250,000 in prize money available to the top bull rider in the World Championships, McBride and Coleman will be in the hunt for their first world title.
The leading bull rider on the 29-city Bud Light Cup Series coming into Las Vegas is 21-year-old rookie Chris Shivers, who has earned more than $252,000 this season.
But the veteran Murray is expected to make a run at Shivers, much in the same way he did in capturing last year's World Championships. Murray is the fifth-place qualifier for this weekend's PBR Finals.
Murray posted a 94-point ride on Panhandle Slim in last year's short-go to edge Shivers for the event average and the $200,000 first prize, which boosted his earnings at the 1999 PBR Finals to $259,050.
Shivers took the second-place prize of $125,000 and earned a total of $168,866 during the event.
McBride finished the 1999 season ranked ninth in earnings with more than $89,000 while Coleman earned nearly $40,000.
"There is a lot of money to win this weekend -- a whole bunch," Coleman said. "Last year, Ty Murray won over $250,000 so this year you can win more than that.
"I just want to ride all my bulls, that's the first goal, and to hopefully win a lot of money and have some fun. Of course, my No. 1 goal would be to win the world championship."
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