LAS VEGAS – At the PBR’s Heroes & Legends Celebration on Tuesday night in Las Vegas, Ty Murray was on hand to introduce the Ty Murray Top Hand Award.

In its inaugural year, the award connects PBR to its historical roots in rodeo and is given to cowboys who have made significant and lasting contributions to enhance the sport of rodeo and its heritage.

“This is the Ring of Honor for guys that aren’t eligible for the Ring of Honor because you have to be a bull rider,” Murray said. “And the criteria for the Ring of Honor is you had to be a great cowboy, bull rider, and you had to do a lot for the sport.

“Well, the three men that we got to see get this award tonight are just unmatched for every reason. Their toughness, their durability, their dedication, the time that they put into meeting people and talking to kids.”

Great people and great athletes alike, Tom Ferguson, Lewis Feild and Trevor Brazile are three of the greatest rodeo cowboys to ever live.

Ferguson has the distinction of being rodeo’s first $1 million man and won nine World Championships. Ferguson was the first cowboy to win more than $100,000 in a single season, and to win six consecutive all-around titles (doing so from 1974-79), finishing in the Top 15 in the world in two disciplines for eight years.

A hallmark of Ferguson’s career was giving back and helping other cowboys, a tradition he’s kept up with since his retirement in the ‘80s and which he credits to his Cherokee heritage.

“The legacy I think Tom leaves with rodeo is kids,” said Jim Warren as he presented Ferguson with his award. “He never passed a kid, he never stopped signing autographs, and he never stopped spending time with kids.”

RELATED: Rodeo’s first million dollar man, Ferguson revolutionized Western sports

Ferguson told a story of helping a young boy at a rodeo when Ferguson noticed him struggling, himself on the way out of the event with his winnings. He stayed to help him for 20 minutes, giving him pointers to modify his technique. When a young bull rider leaving the rodeo saw the pair, he asked Ferguson why he was still there and helping him.

Ferguson answered, “He might not be as fortunate as I was to be around world champions. One of these days you’ll be a world champion, maybe you can pay some of it back as kids are growing up and try to be like you.”

That bull rider was Lane Frost, whose impact on the bull riding world is as far-reaching as anybody’s.

Brazile took Ferguson’s records and ran with them. He’s the richest cowboy in PRCA history with more than $6 million in career earnings, and he’s a 23-time World Champion tie-down roper, team roper and steer roper.

His 23 world titles (13 all-around) have earned him the distinction of being referred to as “the world’s greatest cowboy.”

“You know what… what do you say?” Murray said, presenting Brazile with his award.

Murray went on to say that he tried looking up Brazile’s bio and accomplishments ahead of the ceremony to find a nugget to talk about.

“It’s like reading War and Peace,” he joked. “Literally, it was too long. I just gave up.”

But beyond the records in the arena is Brazile’s record as a person.

“The thing that stands out to me, even beyond what a great cowboy he is, is what a great person he is, and husband and father and role model,” Murray said. “When you look at somebody carrying the flag for our sport, we couldn’t have anybody better.”

RELATED: Dubbed the world’s greatest cowboy, Brazile’s accomplishments are second to none

Brazile, for his part, made his speech about everybody but himself.

He credited his fellow honorees with inspiring him – Ferguson for how hard he worked, Feild for the legacy he left with his family – and spoke about Murray being his enduring inspiration.

“My heroes never changed,” Brazile said. “This guy standing right beside me. That’s why this honor means so much to me. ‘Cause it wasn’t about how many he had and how many I had. It was the manner in which he did it and the style and class that he had every time he entered and exited the arena.”

Feild, who passed away in 2016 from pancreatic cancer, was the first rough-stock cowboy to earn $1 million and the first since Larry Mahan in 1973 to earn a World All-Around Title. He won three of them consecutively (1985, 1986 and 1987), in addition to two world bareback riding crowns (1985 and 1986).

Following his retirement, Feild got into the stock contracting business and coached the rodeo team for his alma mater, passing his expertise on to the next generation.

RELATED: Feild and Pearl Harbor to be honored posthumously at Heroes & Legends Celebration

Feild’s sons represented him proudly in Vegas, with Kaycee presenting the award and Shadrach accepting it.

“I could go on and on about story after story I hear about my dad, and to every rodeo I go to across the country, about how he impacted their life, or made their day better just by stopping and caring about them,” Kaycee said. “He remembered everybody’s names and would take time out of his day and make them feel better. That’s just kind of what he did, his daily routine.”

While Feild was one of the most successful and well-rounded cowboys of his generation, the most enduring memories of him come from outside the rodeo arena.

“I’ve learned more about my dad since he’s been gone than I ever knew when he was here,” Shadrach said. “And it’s because of his humility. When he talked to you, it was about you. It was never about him. I never heard half the cool stuff he did until he was gone. And that’s just the man he was. He was a humble, awesome guy.”

Accepting the award on his father’s behalf, Shadrach summed up his father’s ethos and, in turn, that of the consummate cowboy.

“Be fierce, be competitors, compete,” Shadrach said. “And then outside the gate, be respectful, be humble.”