Cooper, Jimmie

All-Around Champion • Inducted 2005

Jimmie Cooper epitomizes the cowboy way of honesty, hard work and honor. Cooper filled his Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association permit at his first professional rodeo. As the most-talked-about contestant in 1980, Cooper earned that year’s Overall PRCA Rookie of the Year title, as well as Rookie of the Year for tie-down roping and steer wrestling. He followed those feats with the ultimate cowboy crown as the 1981 World Champion All-Around Cowboy.

Cooper competed in team roping, tie-down roping and steer wrestling, and is one of only a dozen cowboys to qualify for the Nation Finals Rodeo in three different events. He roped calves at the NFR seven consecutive years, from 1980-1986, bulldogged four times at the Finals from 1980-83, winning the Wrangler NFR steer wrestling average in 1983, and competed in team roping at three consecutive NFRs from 1984-86.

With the birth of his children, Cooper decided that the rodeo road didn’t need him as much as his family did, and in the prime of his rodeo career decided to stop competing full time. Cooper, his wife, Shryl, and their children, daughter Jill, and 2004 Team Roping Rookies of the Year twins Jake and Jim, call Monument, N.M., home.

World Championships: 1

All-Around: 1981

Rookie of the Year

1980 Overall, Steer Wrestling and Tie-Down Roping

National Finals Rodeo Average Champion

All-Around: 1981, 1982

Steer Wrestling: 1983

Born: November 4, 1956 in Hobbs, New Mexico

Joined PRCA: 1980

NFR Qualifications: 7

Buffalo Bill Rodeo / North Platte, NE
Steer Wrestling: 1982
Tie-Down Roping: 1986

Clovis Rodeo / Clovis, CA
Team Roping: 1985, 1991
Tie-Down Roping: 1991 (tie)

Cody Stampede / Cody, WY
All-Around: 1986
Team Roping: 1985
Tie-Down Roping: 1984

Deadwood Days of ’76 Rodeo / Deadwood, SD
Tie-Down Roping: 1984 (tie)

Dodge City Roundup / Dodge City, KS
All-Around: 1980
Tie-Down Roping: 1980

Ellensburg Rodeo / Ellensburg, WA
All-Around: 1980, 1984, 1985
Steer Wrestling: 1985
Team Roping: 1984
Tie-Down Roping: 1985

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo / Fort Worth, TX
All-Around: 1986
Tie-Down Roping: 1986

Grand National Stock Show & Rodeo / San Francisco, CA
Tie-Down Roping: 1988

Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo / Guymon, OK
Tie-Down Roping: 1980

National Western Stock Show & Rodeo / Denver, CO
Steer Wrestling: 1983

Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo / Ogden, UT
All-Around: 1983
Steer Wrestling: 1983

Redding Rodeo / Redding, CA
Tie-Down Roping: 1986

Reno Rodeo / Reno, NV
All-Around: 1981
Tie-Down Roping: 1982

San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo / San Antonio, TX
All-Around: 1983

Snake River Stampede / Nampa, ID
All-Around: 1980, 1982

Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo / Spanish Fork, UT
Steer Wrestling: 1982
Tie-Down Roping: 1984

World’s Oldest Rodeo Prescott Frontier Days / Prescott, AZ
All-Around: 1985
Team Roping: 1985