Three New NFR Icons Announced to Be Honored at Wrangler National Finals Rodeo

A total of 24 World Championship titles will be represented in the 2024 class of NFR Icons to be celebrated in Las Vegas at the National Finals Rodeo in December.

NFRexperience.com

Las Vegas Events announced Friday, August 3, 2024 that three Vegas NFR Icons will be honored at the 2024 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. The Vegas NFR Icons this year are Joe Beaver, Rich Skelton and Speed Williams.

During the Dec. 6 and 7 performances, each of the rodeo champions will be honored on the hallowed dirt of the Thomas & Mack Center. The presentation will include each receiving a 14” commemorative bronze statue and a ceremony to unfurl a banner in the rafters at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The in-arena schedule for the icons is as follows:

Friday, Dec. 6 – Speed Williams and Rich Skelton
Saturday, Dec. 7 – Joe Beaver

“Las Vegas Events and the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association are committed to recognizing the legends who have defined what it means to be a champion at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo,” said LVE President Tim Keener. “These three great champions – Joe Beaver, Speed Williams and Rich Skelton – are true icons of the sport and synonymous with the events they competed in at the Thomas & Mack Center. We’re proud to continue to grow this program in Las Vegas by honoring the history and legacy of the NFR’s great champions.”

For each icon, LVE will develop a promotional campaign to promote the three legends and build a daily activation calendar to build anticipation for the ceremony inside the Thomas & Mack Center that evening.

In addition to the banner ceremony during the second and third Wrangler NFR performances, several events are planned for the Icons. They will appear at The Cowboy Channel Cowboy Christmas on Wrangler NFR programming on The Cowboy Channel. In addition, LVE will host a special reception for each of the Vegas NFR Icons. Additional details about the reception will be announced at a later date at NFRexperience.com.

Hailing from Victoria, Texas, Beaver grew up dreaming of becoming a cowboy. He started roping at the age of five and never stopped. In 1985 at the age of 20, Beaver won the PRCA Resistol Rookie of the Year award and entered the NFR in Las Vegas as the youngest tie-down roper. After 10 days of intense competition, he left Las Vegas with his first world title and the Thomas & Mack Center became known as “the house that Joe built.”

Beaver would return to Las Vegas to collect four additional world tie-down roping titles and three world all-around titles. When injuries forced him out of competition for most of 1999, Beaver still made the trip to the NFR – this time as a television commentator for ESPN. He returned in 2000 to win his third and final all-around title. He was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in 2002. He continues to conduct clinics teaching young ropers how to compete and serve as a commentator, sharing his expertise and humor.

“Being honored as a Vegas NFR Icon is the final icing on the cake for me, and I’m truly honored to be part of this,” said Beaver. “Las Vegas and the Thomas & Mack Center is where it all started for me in 1985…I was just a kid trying to prove something. Throughout my career, I was able to compete with and against some of the greatest of all time, including Ty Murray, Trevor Brazile, Speed and Rich – guys that were dominant in their discipline. Having this recognition is like having dinner with someone you always wanted to share a meal with. And it’s a unique table.”Beaver continued, “Looking back, the greatest move for rodeo was bringing the NFR to Vegas. I’m so glad to still be involved in rodeo and the NFR as a commentator and to have experienced the thrill of competing in the Thomas & Mack Center. I’ve built a lot of long-term relationships because of this and I’m proud of that.”

Williams and Skelton put on a team roping performance as partners from 1997 until 2004 that may never be matched again in Las Vegas. During that time, the duo racked up eight straight World Championships and also won the average in 2001. In 1999, the pair won six go-rounds at the NFR. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Fla., Williams started roping at an early age and made his first NFR appearance in 1988 heeling with Casey Cox. After that experience he went home and switched to heading. He is credited with starting a new style of swinging the rope in the box, and his style of catching lowered his times and won money. Skelton, from Electra, Texas, made his first NFR appearance in 1990 heeling with Tee Woolman. When Woolman decided to cut back his schedule in late 1997, he joined with Williams. The duo would go on to take 64 victory laps between them at the Thomas & Mack Center. Williams won 28 go-rounds in Las Vegas in his career and Skelton won 36.

“For a boy from Florida who grew up a heeler, it is beyond a fairy tale to look back and realize what Rich and I accomplished at the Thomas & Mack Center,” said Williams.“Being recognized as a Vegas NFR Icon puts us in a really elite group of company. Rich and I were a team, and we could not have been as successful without the other. Our careers were in line with each other and we had the help of a lot of people to accomplish what we did.”

Williams added, “This is not something that we set out to do when we started roping together. We just wanted to be consistent, practice hard with our fundamentals and work on our weaknesses. We tried to have a good approach and that is something I try to teach young ropers today so that they can accomplish their own dreams.”

“As a kid growing up, all I wanted to do was rope and make the NFR,” said Skelton. “It’s a dream come true to be honored as a Vegas NFR Icon. This all started in 1990 when I made the Finals for the first time. Later, one of the most special times for me was realizing in 1997 that we would be world champions for the first time. It means the world to be honored with Speed because we accomplished everything together and it was a great run.”

Skelton added, “We both had the same goals at the same time in our lives, and we had great horses (I had Roany and Chili Dog and Speed had Viper and Bob). During that run, that is all we thought about. We wanted to work at roping all the time."

Known as the richest and most prestigious rodeo in the world, the Wrangler NFR attracts the top 15 contestants in bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding to compete for a share of the increased purse and the coveted PRCA Gold Buckle. In 2023, the event had a total attendance of 157,580 over the nine fully-attended rounds of competition at the Thomas & Mack Center and has sold out 359 consecutive performances in Las Vegas.

Information for this article came from a press release from NFRexperience.com.