Joe Beaver is an eight-time calf roping World Champion that took his accomplishments and kept going even after he stopped professional rodeoing. Since Joe Beaver retired, he is still very much involved in the sport. He puts on ropings and clinics and his voice is one that is always recognizable when you watch the National Finals Rodeo on television.
“One of the coolest things about Joe Beaver is getting to ride into the Thomas and Mack and competing at the NFR in front of 17,000 fans and see, as you ride into the box, Joe Beaver sitting right beside you calling the shots on TV. And it is one of the coolest things in the world just to have that presence right there by the box,” says four-time World Champion Tie-Down Roper Tuf Cooper.
Cooper remembers growing up watching and listening to Joe.
Jeff Medders has been an NFR Commentator since 1991 and he says that Joe brings incredible knowledge and intensity to the broadcast booth with skill and experience. Medders compares Beaver’s NFR commentating and preparation to that of a champion, which is in true Joe Beaver style.
“He doesn’t lack in personality. I enjoy doing television with Joe but my favorite thing to do is have lunch or dinner with him. He kind of holds court and he tells all these old stories… and he doesn’t sugar coat anything,” Medders says.
Trevor Brazile, 28-time World Champion, says that what he learned most from Beaver was the logistics of rodeo. He says that Beaver took it to another level and that he could see things coming that others couldn’t.
If you ask Beaver himself, he says that at the end of the day, he is doing what he wants to do and it is all because of rodeo. To him, rodeo is what he is.
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