It was a perfect fit for Classic Rope to sponsor the Rickey Green Fast Time Award at the BFI this year. Not only did one of the industry’s longest-standing rope companies want to give respect to one of its hardest-working clinicians, but the late Green also had close ties with Classic’s marketing maven, Billie Bray.
“When Rickey and Kelly Green moved to Texas, they lived in a fifth-wheel across the road from us,” recalled Bray, Chief Marketing Officer for Equibrand. “We were with them from the beginning and brought Rickey in as an endorsee and helped promote his schools.”
Green, who won the 1984 BFI heeling for the late Mark Arnold and won the 1988 NFR with Charles Pogue, also was a 10-time NFR qualifier. But even more remarkable was his reputation for throwing fast. Green had the fastest time at the BFI in 1977, ’79, and ’82 with different partners each time.
“Rickey was the first guy that I would kind of say defined roping fast,” said Bray. “He blazed the trail of bringing fast times to team roping, and he’s actually the reason for the PRCA making crossfire illegal. Plus, Rickey gave back a big part of his life to promoting the sport of team roping.”
At last year’s BFI, the Rickey Green Fast Time Award went to reigning world champs Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp for their 4.87-second sizzler in Round 5. It was the only 4-second run at last year’s BFI. The duo also won full-quill-ostrich Justin Boots and boot jacks in addition to the plaques in memory of the gunslinger Green.
“My boys grew up with Rickey Green as their favorite babysitter of all-time,” Bray said. “He was the funnest guy, ever, and had clinics at our place with my boys helping or watching from the fence. They used to watch Westerns and re-enact the gunfights with him all day.”
Green’s quality of instruction is clearly evident in the fact that Paden Bray won the NFR average his first time heeling at the NFR, two years after Green passed away at just 61 years old.
“We shot all of Rickey’s first instructional videos and produced a lot of DVDs,” said Bray. “He was so much fun in the way he could explain heeling. At Classic, we just have respect for Bob Feist and California’s team roping roots and Rickey Green,” she continued. “Rickey was a workaholic who spent his days teaching people how to enjoy roping.”
For the record, Wade also won the inaugural award in 2019, with Billie Jack Saebens for their 4.57-second run in Reno. Like Green, Wade has actually clocked the fastest run of three different BFIs (ten years ago, he also went 4.48 with Kinney Harrell).
Wade is in rare company with Green. And there are only two others who’ve clocked the fast time of the BFI three different years. Clay O’Brien Cooper has done it in three different decades! He had the fast-time back in ’89 with Jake Barnes, in 2000 with Tyler Magnus and in 2012 with Chad Masters.
In fact, let’s talk about Magnus. Not only did he nail the BFI’s fast-time while heading for Clay O., but he also did it the year prior heeling for Tee Woolman. And then again heading in 2003 for Jacky Stephenson. The man knew how to be fast at both ends.
Woolman is the other one to throw fast, having notched the fast-time in ’90 with Monty Joe Petska and ’93 with Rich Skelton. Since we’re talking statistics, only eight teams have ever been under 4.6 seconds on a BFI steer.
And what does that take, against the best hundred teams in the world? Guts and luck. Those merged perfectly in 2013 for Spencer Mitchell and Dakota Kirchenschlager, who still hold the 11-year-old record for fastest steer ever roped at the BFI in 4.21 seconds.
“I had a horse I called Keeper that was probably 10, and he was honest as could be and scored great,” Mitchell said. “No matter how far you threw your rope, he never tried to take anything away from you. He was a special kind of horse, that way. I rode him four or five years, on all kinds of scorelines and he was overly honest.”
While the BFI scoreline is now a foot longer at 19 feet than it was in Reno, guys have still clocked a 4.6 in Guthrie. Mitchell said his record is by no means safe.
“Anything’s possible with the evolution of the team roping industry, as far as times and horses and everyone’s ability,” said Mitchell. “I mean there are so many kids these days that aren’t scared at all. You never know what can happen. It could be beat, and if it is, I hope I get to see the run that does it.”
Mitchell and Kirchenschlager’s big 4.2 happened six years before the BFI began giving out the Rickey Green Award. But those two are still young enough to win it for real, now with the late great heeler’s name attached.
“I got to be around Rickey for a really long time as a kid,” said Mitchell. “I roped both ends with him at multiple jackpots the whole time growing up out in California. To win anything tied to him would be an honor at any point.”
The Dirty Half-Dozen
The six teams with sub-4.5-second BFI runs:
- 4.21 Spencer Mitchell & Dakota Kirchenschlager in 2013
- 4.27 Max Kuttler & Brandon Bates in 2018
- 4.35 Kaleb Driggers & Junior Nogueira in 2016
- 4.36 Brock Hanson & Kory Koontz in 2013
- 4.46 Coleman Proctor & Jake Long in 2008
- 4.48 Tyler Wade & Kinney Harrell in 2015
By Julie Mankin
Wyoming native Julie Mankin has roped for three decades, and in her 25-year career as a former newspaper editor, PRCA publicist and freelance writer, her work has been published in Western Horseman, American Cowboy, AQHA Journal, True West, Cowboys & Indians and more.