For this article, we return to sports and scoreboards, and to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada in 1995.
It’s been a while since we’ve published an article in the [Scoreboards] section so I thought we’d give you one of those behind-the-scenes articles with a scoop of techy details.
Also, as we head west, the Life. And Scoreboards publicity team has suggested that we use a little “cheesecake” imagery to promote L.AS across social media and increase subscriptions. I insisted there also be “beefcake” for our women readers, and everyone was in agreement. So please excuse, or enjoy, the imagery as you read this sports tale of bulls and horses — complete with video links!)
IN THE WIDE, WIDE, world of sports I have worked, it’s usually been Humans competing against each other. I never looked at chicken and went, “Hey, Chicken! Let’s race. Go!”
Or maybe I have, I guess. But they never ran straight or at all, really, the very few times I’ve been around chickens.
But I certainly never looked at a 2,000-pound bull and said, “I want to strap myself to that thing and go for a spin.”
In fact, if someone else nearby said, “I want to get on top of that thing and ride it around,” I would sternly suggest, “No. Let’s find something else to do.”
I’ll let you chime in on the subject, but first watch this:
“Perhaps,” you might say, “it’s the same indomitable spirit that makes a person want to ride a bull that got our species to the moon.”
To which I would say: wow, you make a decent argument. Also, let me look up that word in the dictionary.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary INDOMITABLE -adjective in·dom·i·ta·ble; in-ˈdä-mə-tə-bəl : incapable of being subdued : unconquerable example: indomitable courage indomitability (in-ˌdä-mə-tə-ˈbi-lə-tē) : noun indomitableness (in-ˈdä-mə-tə-bəl-nəs) : noun indomitably (in-ˈdä-mə-tə-blē) : adverb
Nice word. I’ll have to remember that one.
:-- = -- --- =- === = == -= =- =-- -= = === -=- =-==:
Now we present bull rider, Tuff Hedeman, again. He’s the guy who got dragged around in the first video. Now he is riding a bull named “Bodacious,” a legendary 2,000-pound animal famous for not letting people ride on his back. People who have tried often end up in the hospital because Bodacious has a nasty habit of rearing up, and when a person on his back whips forward, Bodacious likes to jump up again and smash the person’s face with the back of its nearly two-foot wide skull.
This ride takes place in 1993, and this is what it looks like when bull riding goes right. This is considered the best ride ever on Bodacious. Tuff earned 95 points with this run. (The maximum you can get is 100 points, but I could only find one example of a perfect 100 in the history of the “sport.”)
Personally, I don’t know that much about rodeo. I’m from Colorado, but I’m from the city. I’m not a cowboy. So why are we talking about it? Why was I involved with the National Finals Rodeo?
Mostly because of the Virtual Recorder. That’s what ultimately got me to Las Vegas.
:= === ==- - = =--- -= =-=- =-= === =- = ---- - ---- === -=- --- -:
In 1994, we were still using videotape to edit and run video to our scoreboards. It was broadcast-quality 3/4” videotape, and it was a time-consuming process to edit.
Then a company called ASC Audio Video Corporation in California developed their VR, or Virtual Recorder. This was one of the first PC-based digital video recorders. Computer hardware was finally fast enough to handle full-motion video.
Hit [Record] and video starts recording on the hard drive. You then use the computer keyboard to scrub backwards and mark the beginning frame, fast-forward to the last frame and mark that. Type in a name for that video clip, and you can add it to a list. Play the list, and the videos play in the order you’ve arranged.
If you want your 30-second car commercial to run before the 30-second hotdog commercial for tonight’s game, you simply use the computer software to drag the car company’s filename below the hotdog’s filename and now the videos will run in that order when you play the list.
That 2-second operation to change the order of the commercials used take several minutes using two videotapes and a pair of 3/4” editing decks.
The VR’s didn’t do cross fades; they weren’t video switchers. Just storage and playback. And they were awesome. World-changing.
We had two VRs at McNichols Arena, the Denver sports venue that preceded Pepsi Center as the home of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche. We would record and play crowd-pumping animations and movie clips on one of the VRs; the other we would use for slo-mo replays.
The VRs were designed to replace video tape in a professional live sports environment, and so we had slo-mo controllers connected to them in addition to the keyboard and mouse. This is how we did slo-mo replays — and build a highlight reel — as the event progresses.
The hockey player is about to shoot and you hit [Mark In] on the VR’s slo-mo controller. The player scores, you keep recording until the celebration. Then you hit [Mark Out] right there and stop recording. Press one button to instantly return you to the [Mark In] point and the goal is cued for a replay. (No rewinding video tape.) Twist the slo-mo controller’s knob to scrub forwards or backwards if necessary to start on the best frame of video, just before he swings the stick perhaps.
When the director calls over headsets for the reply, they switch the feed to the VR and you roll it forward in slo-motion by twisting the control knob. When the replay is over and the video boards switch back to live play, you type in a quick name for that clip, like “Goal 1,” add it to the highlight list, and then scrub forward after that celebration and begin recording again until something else cool happens.
If nothing happens by the time the ref blows the whistle, don’t waste drive space on nothing but guys skating around. Return to the marker after the goal celebration and record new footage from there again when play resumes.
Perhaps the most incredible thing about the VR was that when the game is over, you simply click the first entry on the highlight list and hit [Play], and the VR would play all of those clips, the highlights of goals, good checks, saves, all in order. You have an instant highlight reel that you have built live, during the game.
With videotape, it would take hours, staying late after the game to edit together the highlight reel. Then we would run it at the following game as our “Highlights from the last home game” feature.
But with the Virtual Recorder, you’re running the highlight reel as people are egressing from the very same game. It was groundbreaking then, but now it’s a common part of the show to display highlights to the video boards while people are walking out. We do it after every Denver Bronco game.
The VR was a game changer in the video industry. There’s no such thing as videotape anywhere anymore.
We got ten times the work done in a fraction of the time when using VRs appropriately. With my combined background as a computer programmer and video editor, the VRs were right up my alley.
When I got the itch to move to Las Vegas, I flew out to interview at several casinos that had outdoor animation boards built by the same company as my scoreboards in Denver. The last place I visited was the Thomas & Mack Center, initially looking to program their display boards. But when the dude in charge was giving me a tour of the scoreboard control room, at one point he pointed to two familiar looking machines and said, “These are the VRs. We just got these, but nobody here knows how they work. Have you heard of the Virtual Recorder?”
:=== -=- -= --=- --= =-=- =-= -- =- =--- --= -=-- -=--:
I got the job as the dual VR Operator at the Thomas & Mack Center. I was looking forward to the Las Vegas Thunder hockey season, and it was gonna be cool to work UNLV Runnin’ Rebels basketball games. But I did not think about working rodeos. Never done that before.
We had the PBR (Professional Bull Riders) World Finals in October, and then the National Finals Rodeo in December. Ten days in a row for that one.
“Fuckin’ rodeo?” I wrinkled my face at first. “I don’t want to work rodeo. All that cow- and horseshit? Gross.”
It’s never been my thing. But I was the VR operator and it was my job. So I said, “You know what? I’d love to work some fuckin’ rodeo shit. Watch all these dumbasses get bucked off of horses all day long.”
The precursor to the National Finals Rodeo was the PBR World Finals. That was my first rodeo gig ever. The last thing I would ever watch on TV — intentionally — would be rodeo, however, here’s my job description:
- Record every single second of every ride - (I can't record it without watching it) - Play back every run in slo-motion - Build a playlist of the best runs or rides or whatever
Well, I guess I’m going to learn about rodeo now.
Okay, so let’s get back to the bull riding.
You watched the previous clips, I take it, and saw Tuff Hedeman get dragged around the dirt with his hand stuck to a beast, and then you saw him ride the Big, Bad, Bodacious — the bull considered nearly unrideable, but ridden successfully by the great Hedeman to 95 points in 1993.
Well, Bodacious has an indomitable spirit too.
What I saw while I worked the PBR World Finals in October of 1995 was what it looks like when bull riding goes very wrong.
Watch if you dare.
He came out later and waved to the arena crowd to prove he wasn’t dead. His head had swelled to the size of a pumpkin, like someone had blown more air into a balloon. His cowboy hat lightly balanced on top as two people helped him walk out into the arena and back.
It took 13 hours of surgery to rebuild his face.
I thought of a decent reason why someone might want to ride a 2,000 lb. bull. Tuff Hedeman was one of the first bull riders to surpass the $1 Million mark in PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) earnings.
I think I’d rather have a face.
I’m afraid to look up what ever became of Hedeman but remember, I was the one suggesting, “Hey, let’s find something else to do.”
The PBR World Finals was sort of the precursor. We now move on to The Show.
The National Finals Rodeo.
This is more than bull riding. This is everything. The Super Bowl of rodeo. Cowboy hats are everywhere. At least it’s a good chunk of change to work long hours for ten consecutive days.
In the bull riding competition, Tuff Hedeman draws Bodacious randomly but since Hedeman promised his kid he would never ride Bodacious again, he took a pass.
On Day 8 of the NFR, a guy named Scott Breding drew the dreaded Bodacious. Breding was smart. He made a bold move, bucked tradition, and actually wore a protective face mask for his bull ride on the Big Bad B.
It did not help, and off to the hospital he went too...
On Day 10, December 11, 1995, I watched as they pulled open a gate and let Bodacious run into the arena without a rider. The owner announced to the crowd that Bodacious was officially retired saying later, “I didn’t want to be the guy who let him kill someone.”
The beast was only seven years old and still in his prime. Even had his own sponsorship deal.
Bodacious’s biography is a fascinating read. Some actual quotes from people who knew him best:
“Bo was psychotic. He didn’t like people.”
“If you were on his back, he wanted to hurt you.”
From 1993 to 1995, Bodacious had been out of competition for long periods due to an injury; however, he returned as a more dangerous animal, having developed a new bucking move “involving him bringing his rear up with his head to the ground, luring a rider to shift his weight forward, and then thrusting his head up full force,
to smash the rider in the face”.
On May 16, 2000, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bodacious died of a sudden heart attack while playing roulette at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. They said it was the cigars he smoked in retirement that ultimately did him in.
The NFR’s other events did not have the same level of danger as bull riding. One event is trying to ride a bucking horse that does not want anybody riding on its back. Like with bulls, but with horses.
Okay. I guess that’s cool.
But you know, with a video screen two feet in front of me, as the days moved along — and I was forced to watch everything that happened at least three times (as it happens, as a slo-mo replay, again in the highlight reel) — I started to key in closer to what was going on.
Some of it was fascinating, once I found out the details.
Team roping. Holy crap.
Officially, team roping goes like this:
There is a speedy little steer in a gate flanked by two riders on horses, ropes in hand. When they open the gate and the steer charges, it sets off a horn and starts a timer and the game is afoot.
One of the riders is the “Header.” Their job is to throw a lasso around the sprinting steer’s horns or neck and once done, pull the rope tight as the smart horse walks backwards to keep the line taught. This typically jerks the steer, exposing its hindquarters to the other rider, the “Heeler.”
That’s perfect because the Heeler’s job is to throw their lasso under and around both of the steer’s rear legs and pull their rope tight too, rendering the steer immobile. If the Heeler only lassos one leg, there’s a penalty. Got to get ‘em both.
Get them both? I’m still trying to figure out how one would get a rope underneath a steer’s hoof at all. That thing has got to be in midair to get a rope under it.
Maybe you’ve seen team roping. I was stunned that two people on horseback could perform everything I described above in under 5 seconds, but there it was, right there on my video monitor and on the video boards. It was even crazy to watch it in slo-motion. I found myself rooting for the team ropers. An incredibly complex series of steps to pull off in such a short time.
The World Record in team roping was shattered just two months ago when Dustin Egusquiza (Header) & J.C. Flake (Heeler) broke the 3-second mark pulling of a successful, team roping whatever-they-call-it, in 2.9 seconds.
That is mind-blowing.
Well, shit, y’all. If ‘n ya haven’t figured it out jus’ yet, ‘guess my scoreboard jobber turned me ‘nto a Ro-DAY-eo fan after all.
THE END_
