Jesse Brown off to fast start in rodeo season
Published 7:55 am Monday, February 27, 2023
- Jesse Brown of Baker City wrestles his steer on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022, at the Pendleton Round-Up.
Jesse Brown, a professional steer wrestler from Baker City who had his best season in 2022, hasn’t lost any momentum in 2023.
Brown, 30, who finished last year ranked fifth in the world, was the champion steer wrestler at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo last week.
Brown had a time of 3.1 seconds in the finals.
That tied his career best time, Brown said during a phone interview Monday morning, Feb. 27 from the Tucson, Arizona, airport, where he was about to board a flight for Houston. Brown, who competed in a rodeo in Tucson over the weekend, was heading to Houston for a major rodeo there this Friday, March 3.
“That’s one of my favorite rodeos of the entire year,” Brown said.
The Houston event pays $50,000 to the top steer wrestler, one of the biggest paydays of the year.
His winnings of $22,500 at San Antonio — including $15,000 for the win in the final round, the fastest time during the rodeo — boosted his yearly total to $28,927, which ranks third overall.
Brown said he didn’t use any new tactics in preparing for the 2023 season.
“Just trying to execute and win everywhere I can,” he said.
Brown, a 2011 Baker High School graduate, capped his stellar 2022 season by finishing second overall at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. He finished second in two of the 10 go-rounds and first in the final round.
It was the third year in a row Brown qualified for the National Finals, the biggest event in rodeo.
He finished 2022 with earnings of $241,152 in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events.
But that total didn’t include the $100,000 that Brown earned by winning the steer wrestling event at The American rodeo in Arlington, Texas, on March 6, 2022.
Brown hopes to replicate that feat this year. The American is scheduled for Saturday, March 11.
Brown, who played quarterback at Washington State University before transferring to Montana State University, where he competed in team roping, started in professional rodeo in 2015.
He set the arena record in steer wrestling at the Pendleton Round-Up in September 2019.
