Last Cowboy Standing: PBR & Ariat Texas Rattlers Help Welcome 2025 FWSSR In Style

Last Cowboy Standing: PBR & Ariat Texas Rattlers Help Welcome 2025 FWSSR In Style

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo (FWSSR) is officially back in Cowtown. The PBR Last Cowboy Standing competition made its way to Dickies Arena on January 21-22 for two nights of high-stakes, ride-to-advance bull riding action as part of the FWSSR’s 2025 run. Among the event’s top-finishers were a few familiar faces, including Brady Fielder, Daniel Keeping, and Claudio Montanha Jr. The hometown Ariat Texas Rattlers are no stranger to success inside Dickies Arena. As the only team in the league to remain undefeated on home dirt, the Rattlers know a thing or two about defending our turf and representing Fort Worth with pride. The 2025 FWSSR is expected to attract millions of visitors to Fort Worth by the time it wraps up its 23-day run on February 8.  

Keep reading for more about this iconic piece of the Ariat Texas Rattlers’ hometown history – and why it holds such a special place in our hearts!

 

This Thing Is Legendary: History of the FWSSR

The Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo got its start in the late 1800s, thanks to the pioneering spirit of a pair of forward-thinking local cattlemen. In 1896, Charles French and Charles McFarland came up with the idea of hosting a Stock Show – a public exhibition of the local area’s finest fat cattle – with the goal of educating breeders and buyers in the Fort Worth Area on the advantages of purebred beef cattle. The pair had witnessed firsthand the boom that the railroad had brought to the South Texas cattle industry and once-sleepy city of Fort Worth since its arrival in the area twenty years before. The longhorns for which the Lone Star State is so well-known were hardy and adaptable — ideal candidates for weathering the tough Texas prairie conditions — but the beef from purebred “fat stock” tasted better and was therefore more attractive to consumers and big-name meatpackers throughout the rest of the country. French and McFarland knew that as America’s appetite for beef continued to grow, the demand for purebred stock would grow along with it.

The very first gathering of the now-iconic FWSSR did not even have an official name, let alone a rodeo. Only “a few animals” were on display in the frigid open-air pens that March of 1896: a “rough lot” of mostly purebred shorthorn and Hereford bulls that were “strangers to the comb,” as Charles French lamented. Despite its rocky start, the stock show model was a huge success. A second gathering was held in October of that same year, and by 1901 “The Texas Fat Stock Show” adopted its first official name. The Stock Show continued to grow throughout the decades that followed, adopting a series of name changes and new traditions that have propelled it to its current prestige and popularity. The pitiful image of the stock show’s first gathering is a far cry from the over 22,000 head of livestock that are exhibited at the modern-day FWSSR, including cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, rabbits, and even a handful of exotic breeds.

Infrastructure throughout the city of Fort Worth tells the story of the stock show’s impressive legacy as well: In 1908, construction wrapped up on a building dedicated to hosting the “National Feeders and Breeders Show,” as it was then called. When the doors to the Northside Coliseum opened in February of 1908 for the purpose of displaying stock at the annual FWSSR, it was hailed as “the most opulent and dynamic livestock pavilion in the entire Western Hemisphere.” Now called Cowtown Coliseum, that pavilion has remained a pivotal piece of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo –and the broader fabric of the story of Fort Worth – for more than a century. The first-ever indoor rodeo was held inside Cowtown Coliseum as part of the 1918 stock show. Brahman bull riding joined the rodeo lineup for the first time in 1920, In the years that followed, bull riding continued to pick up steam across the professional rodeo circuit, growing in popularity year after year amongst competitors and fans alike and setting the precedent for a huge change to come to the world of professional rodeo: the founding of the PBR.

 

Texas Traditions: FWSSR, PBR, & the Ariat Texas Rattlers

The story of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo shares many overlaps with that of the Professional Bull Riders. Like the FWSSR, the PBR got its start thanks to a few forward-thinking individuals with a vision for the future. In the spring of 1992, a group of cowboys gathered in a motel room in Scottsdale, Arizona to discuss the future of professional bull riding. Among them was Cody Lambert – one of the original founders of the PBR, and current head coach of the Ariat Texas Rattlers. The founders wanted to create a space separate from the traditional rodeo scene where bull riding would be respected and could stand alone, attracting more mainstream attention and securing a livelihood for future generations of cowboys. In 1993, the PBR held its first event inside the historic walls of the Cowtown Coliseum. Cody Lambert walked away with the event win that evening, and thirty years later, helped lead the Ariat Texas Rattlers to their own first-place finish at the 2023 PBR Camping World Teams Series finals. 

Like the FWSSR, the PBR and Ariat Texas Rattlers have become hallmarks of excellence throughout the Western world. Last September, the Rattlers’ homestand drew record-breaking amounts of fans to Cowtown Coliseum and Dickies Arena for three days of roaring competition. The Rattlers rode to a flawless first-place finish in front of the hometown crowd, defending their title as the only team in the league to remain undefeated on home dirt throughout the Teams Series’ three-year history. Rattler Days will be returning to Fort Worth in full-force this fall, with three days of bull riding action gracing the halls of Dickies’ Arena and Cowtown Coliseum from September 26-28, 2025. You can lock in the opportunity to support your hometown team — and the chance to witness even more history — by purchasing tickets to Rattler Days here!

Nearly 130 years have passed since the first gathering of the FWSSR on that snowy day in March of 1896. Today, the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo is one of the most recognizable and respected showcases of the American West. Like the FWSSR, the Professional Bull Riders and the Ariat Texas Rattlers have become hallmarks of excellence and Western culture throughout Fort Worth and the rest of the world. The Ariat Texas Rattlers are proud to share stomping grounds with the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. From Cowtown Coliseum to Dickies Arena and everywhere in between, we are blessed to call Fort Worth home. The Stock Show is a fantastic opportunity to experience the best of all this incredible city has to offer. Whether you’re a native Texan or one at heart, going to a PBR event and attending the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo are quintessential Texas traditions. Be sure to get a piece of the action at the FWSSR this year and see for yourself why they say: “This thing is legendary!

PBR
Ariat Texas Rattlers
Brady Fielder
Daniel Keeping
Claudio Montanha Jr.
Rattler Days
PBR Teams
Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
Cowtown Coliseum
Dickies Arena
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