FORT WORTH, Texas ― Every year, at the PBR World Finalsthere's a corridor leading from the locker rooms down to the arenafloor inside the Thomas & Mack Center.
It's not just any hallway. It's famously known as the Hall ofChampions, a mural of past gold buckle winners that lines eitherside.
A few years ago, two-time champion JustinMcBride was standing there when an interview turned tospeculation about the greatest among the greats.
"In his prime he was awesome. It was somethingreally fun to watch."
He didn't know it, but he was leaning against an oversized photoof Chris Shivers from 2003 and McBride didn'tpause or hesitate before emphatically stating, "Chris Shivers isthe best…"
"I've never seen anyone more exciting to watch (or) look betteron a bull," McBride continued. "He could just beat you, hands down,on a two-point-less bull ― because he's that good."
PBR co-founder and longtime Livestock Director CodyLambert agreed with McBride's assessment of Shivers on alesser bull.
"He's ridden the rank ones, he's ridden the flashy ones, he'sridden the easy ones and (did) it with a style that got the maximumamount of points out of every bull," Lambert added.
Throughout its anniversary season, the PBR will profile the Top20 Moments in PBR History.
A profile of Shivers, who won the first of two world titles in2000 and his second in 2003, is the latest in an ongoing series ofmoments. This week's moment is as pointed as McBride's assessment:"Shivers sets 90-point standard."
The talk of 90-point rides is the one bull topic in which thereis little doubt as to whose name will dominate theconversation.
Shivers recorded 94 qualified rides in excess of 90 points orbetter. That is more than the combined totalof Guilherme Marchi (48) andJ.B. Mauney (43) ― who currently lead activeriders in 90-plus rides.
The Louisiana native recorded his first 90-point ride with 92.5points on Tony Lama Boots at the 1997 WorldFinals, and his last with 90 points on Delco inAtlanta in 2012.
He has three of the Top-10 scores in history, and five of theTop 25. He tied the highest score in PBR history with 96.5 pointson Jim Jam and Dillinger, whilealso scoring 96 points on Trick or Treat and95 points on Clayton's Pet andNavajo.
RELATED: The 96.5-point ride club: Chris Shivers, BubbaDunn and Michael Gaffney
"When he was on his game, and when he was winning WorldChampionships, I don't think anybody ever looked better," said PBRco-founder and nine-time World Champion TyMurray.
In the first 12 years of his career, 24 percent of his 341career rides were for 90 points or more. That means one in nearlyevery four times that Shivers made the 8-second whistle ― 82times, to be exact ― he scored 90-plus points, including fivefor 95 points or better.
Shivers not only had a hand in the highest score in PBR history― a 96.5-point mark first accomplished by BubbaDunn in 1999 ― but he accomplished it twice.
The first of those came in January 2000 in Tampa, Fla., when herode Jim Jam. He did it again the following year, in Las Vegas,during the World Finals when he rode Dillinger to earn the LaneFrost/Brent Thurman Award for the highest marked ride of theFinals. It was the second time in three years he had done so.
Furthermore, in the first six years of his stellar careerShivers never finished lower than ninth in the world standings andwas actually in the Top 4 in five of those six seasons, includingwinning two world titles.
For more photos of Chris Shivers click, here.
Looking back, it's hard to imagine Shivers as a shy andsoft-spoken kid from Jonesville, La.
Outside the arena, he's appeared on nationally televised sportsshows ("The Best Damn Sports Show"), news programs ("The TodayShow") and entertainment broadcasts ("Last Call with Carson Daly")with the same relative ease. Aside from bull riding publicationsand daily newspapers, he's been written about everywhere from_Newsweek_ and Esquire to RollingStone.
In the arena, he was the PBR's first millionaire, and the firstcowboy to earn $3 million in prize money. It should also be notedthat he also claimed two Challenger titles in 1997 and 2000. Whenhe retired at the conclusion of the 2012 Finals, he did so havingnodded his head more times than anyone else in Built Ford ToughSeries history (877) and has recorded more qualified rides (408)than anyone else.
"In his prime he was awesome," McBride said on that day inOctober, while standing in a hallway honoring some of the greatestriders to have ever ridden in the PBR's history. "It was somethingreally fun to watch."
Follow Keith Ryan Cartwright on Twitter @PBR_KRC.