Beaver to Webb: Gold Buckles Bind Rodeo’s Past, Present and Future

This is the final installment of the 2025 Gold Buckle Buzz series, when writer Brian Hurlburt dove into the hearts and minds of PRCA World Champions who clinched titles during the 2024 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo®. As part of the 40th anniversary of the NFR in Las Vegas, each living 1985 PRCA and WPRA World Champions were also featured.

Joe Beaver, a Las Vegas NFR icon and ProRodeo Hall of Fame inductee, won his first gold buckle in 1985 at just 20 years old.

Riley Webb, today’s top tie-down roper and a former Junior NFR champion, also won his first gold buckle at 20—before backing it up with another in 2024.

Forevermore, the two will be linked whenever the best to ever do it in rodeo—and at the NFR—are discussed. In June 2025, during a Wrangler National Finals Rodeo promotional event leading up to the 40th anniversary of the NFR in Las Vegas (Dec. 4–13), Beaver and Webb spent time together, along with each of the 2024 world champions and each living 1985 world champion.

Webb’s earliest memories of the NFR in Las Vegas include Beaver, now a mainstay on the television broadcast and who remains one of the sport’s biggest personalities.

“This is so cool,” Webb said. “Watching Joe Beaver rope and now getting to spend time with him is very special. I grew up idolizing him and have always tried to pattern my roping career after his. I try to do the same things. To be around him, to talk to him, to ask for advice—it’s really cool.

“As for Vegas, I enjoy it out here. It’s iconic. Growing up, Vegas was the spot for the NFR. All I ever knew was the NFR being in Las Vegas.”

Beaver remembers the ’85 NFR fondly, though there was a dose of skepticism in the air following the move from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas.

“Honestly, people didn’t know if I was a flash in the pan—or if Vegas was—or both of us,” Beaver remembered. “It was the beginning for me in my rodeo career and Las Vegas as the home of the NFR. Benny (Binion) hoped it would work, and Michael (Gaughan) had big ideas, but nobody really knew. Fortunately, we both flourished. I was qualified about 20 times for the NFR in Las Vegas. And now I am still involved in the NFR as a broadcaster.”

That first gold buckle was the beginning of Beaver’s eight world titles—three in the All-Around and five in Tie-Down Roping. As the wins piled up, the Thomas & Mack Center became known as “The House that Joe Built.”

“I wasn’t a Vegas person and didn’t know anything about it,” Beaver recalled. “But I thought, ‘Man, it has to be a bigger, brighter place than where it was before.’ I remember coming over the hill through Henderson, seeing all the lights, and thinking, ‘This is where I belong.’

“It was my first year, so it didn’t matter much where I was going, but to go to Vegas—where it paid twice as much as the year before—was perfect timing. It was a lot of money, a new format, and a new venue. I liked the bright lights and the atmosphere. We just rolled and had a blast.”

Webb was introduced to Las Vegas at a much younger age. He competed in the YETI Junior World Finals—the event transforms into the YETI Junior NFR in 2025—for as long as he can remember, quickly emerging as a star in the making. Competing in Vegas each December now feels second nature for him.

“I’ve been getting ready to come to Vegas each year in December since I was 12,” Webb said. “This feels normal, and only the arena has changed since those earlier days.”

Webb has lived up to the hype. He won the Resistol Rookie of the Year Award in 2022, followed by back-to-back world titles. He also claimed the NFR average title in 2024. As of Sept. 10, 2025, he led the world standings by nearly $50,000 over Shad Mayfield, the 2024 PRCA All-Around World Champion.

Webb credits legends like Beaver for raising the bar—for he and his competitors.

“Roy Cooper, Joe Beaver—they were the first ones to get on fast, go fast, and get off fast,” Webb said. “They changed the game and made calf roping what it is today. Now the younger generation has tried to tweak it a little to get even faster.”

Beaver appreciates what he sees in the new crop of champions, and how they are building on the foundation laid 40 years ago.

“Shad and Riley and those guys who are champs now—I remember when they were just little boys coming to my junior events,” Beaver said. “It’s neat to be part of that all the way through and see how they are taking it to the next level.

“Vegas is where my career started, and I owe a lot to it. After my rodeo career, I started doing TV, and now I have been in television 17 years or something crazy like that. It’s fun to look back at the Thomas & Mack in those early days. They just had panels set up, and people were everywhere. The more it evolved, the more it looked like a Super Bowl event. Now, it’s on a whole different level.”

Webb is ready for another NFR closeup and hopes to get one gold buckle closer to Beaver’s total. He will enjoy the unmatched NFR atmosphere before, during and after each ride.

“There’s nothing like the NFR and seeing the yellow bucking chutes that everybody talks about,” Webb said. “It’s a different vibe, and this is what dreams are made of. I know the 40^th anniversary celebrations will be cool.”