Trevor Brazile’s star studded career began in 1996 when he won the Resistol Rookie of the Year, this is one moment of Brazile’s career that he remembers very vividly, not because he won the coveted title in the steer roping, but because he did not win it in his other two events, team roping or tie-down.
“I mean, when I set out to win Rookie of the Year, just like everybody else I wanted to do it in all my events,” Brazile said.
Not finishing atop the team or tie-down roping standings showed he had a ways to go to reach his ultimate goals. In 1996, he watched his peer, Shane Slack, win the rookie race and go to the Finals in calf roping.
“It was awesome to get to see somebody go and do that but to see how much work I needed in certain events was pretty sobering. But I also think that had the Rookie of the Year not meant so much to me, it may not have put me in the arena to do the work it took to get where I needed to get,” he said.
Brazile would go on to leave his name on page after page in the rodeo history books and people would call him the King of the Cowboys. It all started with the drive to go after the Resistol Rookie of the Year title.