Las Vegas Weekly

December 13, 2008 · 6:46 AM

Morning Call Photo Gallery: Tom Brokaw, Jewel play spectator at Day 9 of NFR

By Robin Leach

Photo: Tom Donoghue/www.donoghuephotography.com

Call last night the final Wrangler National Finals Rodeo tune-up -- because tonight it all comes to a tumultuous and celebratory close with $5.5 million in prizes being awarded on world championship Saturday. Former NBC newsman Tom Brokaw, with his wife Meredith, and country and pop singer-guitarist Jewel were among the crowd of 17,784 to listen to the Zac Brown Band kick off the night with their “Chicken Fried” start!

The evening’s highlight, though, was when Cody Wright clinched his first saddle bronc world title. Now everybody’s watching to see if our own Clark County cowboy Randon Adams can grab his first world title in team roping! Randon, just 26, hails from Logandale, which is near the Valley of Fire State Park -- halfway between Las Vegas and Mesquite.

With Arizona partner Matt Sherwood, Randon won last night’s crucial go-round with a time of 3.7 seconds. They credited this week’s workout practices at his family’s ranch north of Las Vegas for their win. They each earned an additional $16,766, putting his earnings at $162,254 and at the top of the world standings. Randon’s previously won only one other go-round back in 2006, but tonight he’s in perfect position to become our first Southern Nevada native son to grab a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world championship and a huge prize purse and bonus.

Last night saw Utah’s Cody Wright ride to a world victory in the saddle bronc competition. He joined the only two other world winners from this week: Trevor Brazile as all-around champion and Lindsay Sears for barrel racing. Winners of all the other categories will be determined tonight. And remember: The final go-round moves one hour ahead to 5:45 p.m. at Thomas & Mack Center.

Our contributing photographer Tom Donoghue was arena side again for last night’s spectacular photo coverage, and he’ll be back for tonight’s closing ceremonies. We’ll post that collection and the results right here tomorrow morning. You’ll find Tom’s photos from all 10 days of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo on our Photo File pages by clicking on the navigation tab above.

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