When Clint Adkins picks up the microphone to announce this weekend’s event in Billings, Mont., he’ll be filled with emotion.

Four years ago, the Professional Bull Riders called Adkins up to Billings to see if he had what it took to work the Built Ford Tough Series.

He did. He became the back-up on the association’s top-tier tour.

Two years ago, Adkins became a full-time in-arena announcer on the Ford Series, joining veteran Brandon Bates. That career milestone also began in Billings.

“When I think of Billings, I see it as a place steeped in Western heritage,” Adkins said. “The PBR is in a special building, in a special city.”

The 2010 Nile Invitational presented by Cooper Tires is scheduled for Friday through Sunday at the Rimrock Auto Arena at Metrapark in Billings.

Adkins’ announcing career is a tale of making the big time after starting in humble beginnings.

Before he became an announcer, Adkins was a bareback rider who competed in open rodeos. However, he sustained a shoulder injury when a bronc flipped in the mid-1990s at the south Texas town of Boerne.

Though it was not an overly serious injury, the accident was traumatic, and Adkins could never again get pumped up about riding roughstock.

“I never could rekindle that fire to ride again,” he said. “What happened to me got into my head so deep.”

That’s when Adkins, who had grown up in Sugar Land, Texas, in the Houston area, began searching for his main purpose in life. He found it when he was visiting with a Cowboy Church minister named Ron Conatser.

Conatser, a longtime Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association judge who now raises bucking bulls, was holding regular buck-outs at Trinity, Texas. Adkins would attend and ride bulls for fun. But one day, Conatser asked Adkins to announce the buck-outs.

“We pulled a speaker out of his church and I picked up a microphone,” Adkins said. “About three weeks later, one of the stock contractors who had been bringing bulls there hired me. He actually paid me for it. I began to have money in my pocket and I said to myself, ‘Wow, I might be able to make money at this.’”

It was apparent Adkins had talent.

“He just has that natural ability,” Conatser said. “He just handles himself in the right way and it’s really a blessing the way his career turned out.”

During the late 1990s, Adkins attended a PBR tour stop in San Antonio, where he had the opportunity to meet 1997 World Champion Michael Gaffney. It was one night that he will never forget.

“He made such an impression on me by spending time with me and making me feel so important,” Adkins said of Gaffney. “I was so impressed. I said to myself, ‘This is such a professional organization and maybe this is where I should put all of my focus on where I want to go.’ So, I put all of my time and effort to become the best announcer that I could be, knowing that one of these days I could put myself in a position to get a job with the PBR and be on their top tour.

“I decided that the PBR is where my future would be even though I had to learn through working many rodeos to learn how to announce effectively. I had to cut my teeth at amateur rodeos in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. But I made it my goal that night to work for the PBR.”

Adkins eventually was granted the opportunity to work on the PBR’s Touring Pro Division. That in turn helped him earn the notoriety he needed to move up to the Ford Series.

“It took me 10 years to do it,” Adkins said. “But I finally got it. I may have taken the long way around. I traveled a lot of miles and ended up burning up a lot of trucks and trailers.”

Bates, who is Adkins’ counterpart on the Ford Series, said Adkins is a great student of bull riding.

“He’s a real technical guy,” Bates said. “He’s a guy who is going to break down and do his homework about the bulls and the numbers. I say what I see. He’s more of a number cruncher and a technical guy, and I like to focus more on drama and what’s happening right now. That’s why I think we work together so good, because we don’t cancel each other out. “

Adkins said he enjoys the PBR tour because the shows last only two or three days, which gives him the opportunity to spend more time at home with his family. Today, Adkins, 37, lives near Huntsville, Texas, about an hour north of Houston. He and his wife Jodi are raising two daughters, Riley, 9, and Emily, 5.

Adkins’ advice to younger, up-and-coming announcers: Be very honest and fair.

“Tell the truth and don’t make anything up,” Adkins said. “I tell guys all of the time that I’ve never had a business card that said: ‘Call me.’ It’s always been by word of mouth. A person needs to be themselves, speak the truth and be fair to the fans and the bull riders.”

Adkins said an announcer must have a knack for relating to competitors.

“When I see guys struggling in the Touring Pro Division, I can understand what they’re going through,” he said. “I can understand the challenge of getting from event to event and the expenses involved. It’s almost like I never stopped riding.

“When people watch me announce, they notice that while I’m watching a guy ride a bull, I’m always moving. I just do that because I’m trying to ride the bull for them.”

Adkins actually has mounted a bull at a PBR show. Last year in Billings, he accepted the challenge of taking on a bull after stating that he once rode bulls. Some of those around him doubted him, and so Adkins got on a bull to prove he knew what he was talking about.

And Adkins didn’t take on just any bull. He picked a bovine named 3 Spot, a former PBR World Finals bucker who was at the end of his career. The ride took place during the Sunday afternoon performance, the last day of the Billings BFTS show.

Adkins borrowed a helmet and vest, spurs, chaps, and a bull rope and climbed aboard. He commanded respect after making the first round atop the spinning bull and staying on for several jumps.

“I wish very much I could do that again,” Adkins said. “But (PBR Livestock Director) Cody Lambert says I’m going to have to buy my PBR card if I get on another bull.”

NEWS AND NOTES

New TV times: To avoid excessively late coverage due to the Stanley Cup playoffs, Versus will air PBR events at 4 p.m. ET Saturdays and Sundays for the next few weeks.

— by Brett Hoffman