J.B. Mauney and his family were able to celebrate this past Sunday as the 26-year-old finally accomplished a lifelong goal he was determined to achieve since he was 3 years old.
By PBR
LAS VEGAS ― From the time he started riding sheep when he was 3 years old, the goal for J.B. Mauney has been to ride bulls in the PBR and win a world title.
Through all the tumultuous times and memorable moments he never lost sight and after the most prolific late-season comeback in the 20-year history of the PBR, James Burton Mauney, 26, is finally the World Champion.
“It’s been 23 years in the making,” Mauney’s father, Tim said with tears welling up in his eyes that were outlined with bright red eyelids.
“When he was little that’s all he talked about—riding bulls and being a World Champion.”
Mauney won five of the last nine regular-season Built Ford Tough Series events to pull within 538.5 points going into the World Finals, which he also won by becoming the first man to cover all of his bulls at the Finals twice.
His mother, Lynne, was overwhelmed with emotion as she stood on the dirt just below the shark cage watching her son and his wife, Lexie, pose for photos with a steady stream of PBR executives, sponsors and even the security staff.
“This is as much about the man and the dad that he’s become,” Lynne said. “Becoming the man that he is; is why he’s been able to accomplish this.”
In the past few years he’s become a father – his daughter Bella is 2 – and married the niece of Dickies Bullfighter Frank Newsom.
Despite often being referred to as “the toughest man in the PBR,” the moment proved to be bigger than the perception of Newsom’s image.
A man who always credits God, the veteran bullfighter’s voice crackled – “I’m so proud of him that I don’t have the words” – until he finally needed a moment of his own before saying, “He earned it. It didn’t get any gifts.”
Newsom added he was happy to know Mauney would provide a good life for his young family.
Mauney finished the 2013 season with $1,810,710.75 earned at PBR events – less than $25,000 shy of Justin McBride’s single-season PBR record. However, he also won more than $100,000 at the Calgary Stampede in mid-July, which gives him the richest single season of any Western athlete in history.
“He stayed focused,” Newsom said. “He did the work and he believed. To see it pay off, it’s a good thing.”
Tim Mauney called Sunday “a life-changing deal.”
The elder Mauney said that while the entire week was emotional for the rest of the family – Lynne described it as “very nerve-wracking” – J.B. remained focused and handled the pressure the way any eight-year veteran who had been in previous pressure-situations would be expected to handle it.
J.B. stayed focused.
Tim is always behind the chutes and oftentimes pulls not only J.B.’s rope, but also his son-in-law Shane Proctor’s. However, this past week he took a couple steps back and it was Stormy Wing who stepped up and helped out as he has for much of the nine-week run, which ended with a PBR record four event wins at the elite level.
“He’s been more focused than he’s ever been in his entire life,” Tim said on Sunday afternoon, early in Round 5. “He really has put his whole life into this—this one day will be what he’s always worked for.”
Mauney finished off the Finals with a pair of round wins.
Mauney celebrated with Wing, Douglas Duncan and others before being drenched in water by Kody Lostroh, who with the help of a couple other peers poured a Monster Energy cooler worth of ice-cold water over his head, shoulders and back.
He then celebrated with his family, including his sister, Jessie Proctor, and embraced his wife.
Click HERE for more photos from the 2013 World Finals. Photo by Andy Watson / BullstockMedia.com.
The two stayed atop the shark cage until Mauney was led to an upstairs media room. His right hand shook not because of nerves, but because of an injury to the two small fingers and the top of his hand that had gone relatively unnoticed.
It would be only fitting for the oft-injured Mauney, who took the most of the summer off to heal up his aching body and get himself healthy for the first time since he turned pro in 2006, to get somewhat banged up—even if it only resulted in a quick, nonchalant onceover look between photos.
“He came back a lot more focused and he had it on his mind,” Tim said of J.B.’s determination to finally win a world title after twice finishing second and twice finishing third. “I could tell when he started back there was just something different about him.”
In the four years that the Finals has had a six-round format, Mauney’s 546.25 points is the highest total since he scored 715 points in an eight-round format in 2009, which remains a 20-year Finals record.
It took every bit of heroics for Mauney to close the 3,056-point advantage Alves had coming out of the three-month long summer break. It was a stark contrast between the Mauney who competed in the first part of the season and the Mauney who started off the stretch-run by riding Bushwacker.
In the past two years, he’s the only rider to successfully cover Bushwacker, Asteroid and Shepherd Hills Tested.
“J.B. said it the other night, whether he won a world championship or not, he wanted people to remember him for not backing up,” Lynne said. “I agree. He stayed true to what cowboys are and it paid off.”
Tim concluded that Alves has been a great champion for the past two years, but felt coming into the final event, “this year’s J.B.’s time.”
