Sep 30, 2026 · 1h 21m
Jerome Davis turned a career-ending injury into a new PBR life
Jerome Davis: The Bull Riding Champion Who Helped Build The PBR
Davis’s story connects bull riding’s physical cost to the organizational changes and coaching work that reshaped his career.
- 1Jerome Davis built a world-champion career from a North Carolina ranch and helped launch professional bull riding.
- 2A 1998 accident left Davis unable to walk, forcing him to rebuild his life through bucking bulls and event production.
- 3As Carolina Cowboys coach, Davis explains how PBR’s team model changed competition, contracts, and the sport’s growth prospects.
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Davis revisits the 1998 Fort Worth accident that left him unable to walk and explains how bucking bulls and event production gave him a new path.
The brief
Jerome Davis grew up on a North Carolina ranch, taught himself bull riding, and built local events before entering a punishing national rodeo circuit.
He recalls joining Tuff Hedeman, Cody Lambert, and other riders to found the PBR, then winning the 1995 world championship after more than 100 rodeos.
The sport demanded extraordinary tolerance for fear and injury, but Davis’s 1998 Fort Worth accident changed the stakes when he was left unable to walk.
Davis rebuilt his life by raising bucking bulls and producing events, eventually becoming coach of the Carolina Cowboys as PBR shifted toward team competition.
His conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr. links racing and rodeo while examining PBR’s international growth, financial model, and challenge of creating mainstream stars.