Ty Murray - Bio Ty Murray’s fifth-grade teacher once assigned him an essay in which he had to answer one question: “If you could do anything in your life, what would it be?” Without hesitation, the skinny toehead wrote, “I want to beat Larry Mahan’s record,” referring to the living legend’s six world all-around championships. With his parents’ support and a few mentors like Mahan along the way, Murray grew up to make that dream a reality. Before he could walk he rode the case of his mom’s sewing machine, moving up to the arm of the couch when he started to crawl. By the age of 2 he’d graduated to calves, and won his first rodeo title at 5. Murray’s one-track mind to be the greatest cowboy who ever lived spurred him to take on every challenge he could think of that might help improve his balance and coordination, from gymnastics to juggling atop a unicycle and walking miles of fenceline. From day one, Murray was on a mission and was determined not to be denied. Murray was a winner from the word go, and won national championships at every level of competition along the way as he climbed the ranks from youth to high school and college rodeo. Each stepping stone took him closer to that ultimate, original goal. In 1988, Murray took the professional plunge, and earned the honor of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s Overall and Bareback Riding Rookie of the Year. The following year, he won his first PRCA World All-Around Championship, and by 23 was the youngest cowboy millionaire the sport had ever known. Murray won his record-shattering seventh PRCA World All-Around Championship in 1998. With PRCA World Bull Riding titles dated 1993 and ’98, and Wrangler National Finals Rodeo average crowns from 1993 (bareback riding) and 1998 (bull riding), Murray took his sport to new heights. In 2000, “The King of the Cowboys” was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs, Colo., where his unparalleled career will be immortalized for future generations of rodeo fans to marvel. Murray, a founding member and original shareholder of the Professional Bull Riders, Inc., has dedicated the last few years to becoming an elite force in the PBR. He’s more than succeeded on that front, too, dominating the 1999 PBR Bud Light Cup World Finals, and finishing the reserve PBR Bud Light Cup World Champion Bull Rider the last three years running. One of only three PBR millionaires, Murray’s combined PRCA and PBR earnings of more than $3 million make him the winningest cowboy who ever lived. “I have loved the cowboy life — everything about it — since the day I was born,” Murray said. “There’s no other feeling like like making great rides on great animals on this earth. But my ultimate goal has never been to be a good roughstock rider. It’s always been to be a great cowboy, a tough cowboy and a good horseman. I don’t care about going down in history as a great bull rider or bronc rider. I just hope that when people think back long after my career’s over and my name’s brought up they’ll remember me as a great cowboy.”