Porter has been a familiar face on the Professional Bull Riders' tours since 1996.   While he missed much of the 2002 season due to injuries and spent most of the next two years fighting his way back to the elite Built Ford Tough Series presented by Wrangler (BFTS),  Porter has pocketed $890,290 in the course of his career and etched his name in the PBR history books when he won the prestigious PBR World Finals event title in 2000 - with an impressive $274,738 in Finals earnings.

"At Ross's (Coleman) bull riding this summer I was visiting with my good friend J.W. (Hart) about retiring from the sport," said Porter. "I told him that I couldn't ask for a better season and I always did want to go out on top. Before that, Ashley (Porter's wife) and I had talked about it. I always told my family that I'd be home someday and I think it's time. Jason is 6 and Hailey is 5 and it's time to go to some more ball games and cheerleading practices."  

The 2007 Built Ford Tough Series season was looking to be one of Porter's best years with the PBR.  With only two events left before the 2007 PBR Built Ford Tough World Finals, Porter is in 26th place with $66,359 in PBR bucks. An unfortunate moment during the first round of the Mohegan Sun Invitational left Porter with a compound fracture of his free (right) arm. While Porter will sit out for the next two BFTS events, he will take his final rides at the PBR World Finals October 26-28 and November 1-4.

In his 365 career outs, Porter has 159 scored rides, a riding percentage of 43.56% and an average ride score of 84.84 points. "You can't slow down in this sport, you have to give 110% every time. I don't want to be the old guy that the younger guys think is wasting space; I want to be threat every time," Porter stated.  "The young guys on this tour are like little piranhas lurking to take over your spot. It's great for the sport but it also helped me make the decision. The broken arm hinders things a little bit but I'll be at Finals and be as tough as ever."

Porter's long-time friend and competitor, J.W. Hart (Overbrook, Okla.) reflected on the time he has spent with Porter over the past 12 years. "Some of the best times I ever had were going to bull ridings with Tater and Jerome Davis," recalls PBR's "Ironman" J.W. Hart. "It's sure not going to be the same without him around."

"There's a million people I want to thank who have helped me along the way," said Porter. "I just want to give back to the sponsors and the fans of the PBR as they have given us so much."

At the tender age of 5, Tater Porter crawled on his first calf in the practice pen. He can't remember how long that first ride really lasted, but he was hooked. By age 8 he was riding steers and at the age of 11 he had progressed to bulls. Now at the age of 36, Porter has decided it's time to hang up his bull rope and spurs.

"It was in my blood," Porter chuckles. "I found something I wrote in kindergarten and it read, ‘When I grow up I want to be a bull rider'."  Without a doubt, Porter lived up to the expectations he had at 5 years old.

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