Clint Cooper completes brotherly trifecta with Round 4 win at NFR

As brothers, tie-down ropers Clint, Clif and Tuf Cooper share numerous things, including spots in this year’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, and now the trio can add go-round championship buckles to the list. Clint, the eldest of ProRodeo Hall of Famer Roy Cooper’s sons, joined his brothers as round winners at this year’s $5.875 million Wrangler NFR by tying five-time World Champion Tie-Down Roper Cody Ohl for the Round 4 victory with a 7.1-second run. Wrangler NFR rookie Clif Cooper won Round 1, while Tuf – last year’s Wrangler NFR average champion – took the go-round buckle in the third round. Clint Cooper and Ohl finished one-tenth of a second ahead of Stran Smith to share the round win, and each earned $15,676 in the process. “I knew the calf was going to be fast handling,” said Clint Cooper, who is riding the 2010 AQHA/PRCA Tie-Down Roping Horse of the Year Sweetness. “I missed (the barrier) a tick, and Sweetness made up all the ground. Sweetness did everything for me. He set up the whole run for me.” The eldest Cooper was thrilled to join his brothers as round winners in Las Vegas this year. “First of all, to make history with all three of us being here, I’m just privileged and honored and blessed,” he said. “Shoot, after Clif won the first round in 7.8 and Tuf was 6.9, I was thinking, ‘Please God, I need to get to that South Point (winner’s stage) somehow.’” The Cooper victories mark the first time since 1991 that a set of three brothers each won rounds at the Wrangler NFR. Dan, Billy and Robert Etbauer all won rounds at the same NFR twice (1989, 1991)...more