Roy Cooper, legendary rodeo calf roper and New Mexico native, dies at 69

Roy Cooper earned a degree in agricultural journalism at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 1977.

Perhaps his writing skills, combined with his riding skills, helped him rewrite the rodeo record books as among the greatest — and most influential — calf ropers in the history of the sport.

But, by the time he was granted that degree, his remarkable rodeo career was already well under way.

Cooper, a Hobbs High School graduate who grew up in Lea County, New Mexico as part of one of rodeo’s most prominent families, died on April 29 in a house fire at his home in Decatur, Texas. He was 69.

It seems fair to say Cooper was born into rodeo. His father, Monument, New Mexico rancher Dale “Tuffy” Cooper, won a college calf-roping championship for the University of New Mexico — yes, UNM once had a rodeo team — in 1950. Tuffy’s brother, Jimmy, was a successful rodeo competitor as well.

And when Roy Cooper won the all-around cowboy title in 1983, his cousin Jimmie — Tuffy’s nephew and Jimmy’s son — finished second.

The family tree kept growing. Roy’s sister, Betty Gayle Cooper-Ratliff, was a calf-roping and all-round champion on the women’s circuit.

Roy’s sons, Clint, Clif and Tuf, are all professional tie-down ropers. Tuf Cooper is a three-time PRCA champion.

Roy Cooper was a six-time calf-roping champion, a level of success exceeded in that event only by Dean Oliver’s eight titles.

Ray Birmingham, the now-retired head baseball coach at UNM, grew up with Cooper in Hobbs; the two were born two days apart in November 1955.

Cooper was a good basketball player in his youth, Birmingham recalled, but there was never a question as to what sport he’d pursue.

“Everybody liked Roy,” Birmingham told the Journal via Facebook message. “He lived life at 100 mph.

“He was focused on being a world champion, and three years after graduation he became just that.”

Cooper won his first calf-roping national title in 1976 at age 20. But then, he’d been winning national junior titles since he was 11.

Other than the Cooper family culture, what made Roy Cooper the “Super Looper” that he became?

His father, Tuffy, said what separated his son from others was not so much accurately throwing the rope or tying down the calf — skills at which he, of course, excelled.

From horse to calf, he was lightning.

“His greatest ability is his speed to his calf,” his father was quoted as saying in a 1980 Daily Oklahoman article. “Somehow, no matter how he ropes a calf, no matter if the calf is in an awkward position or not, he is able to handle his slack rope quicker than most.

“He also has great timing and his reflexes are quicker than most ropers. … He ropes well and the way a roper handles his slack after he ropes a calf is very important on how quickly he gets to the calf. As I say, Roy shines here.”

Roy Cooper competed at rodeo’s highest levels from the mid-1970s well into the ‘90s. While competing, he became a promoter and an instructor as well.

His Roy Cooper’s Championship Calf Roping promotion brought together most of the best ropers of the ‘90s — including himself.

“He’s still the master,” champion roper Brent Lewis said of Cooper in a November 1993 Daily Oklahoman story. “There’s Roy Cooper in all of us, because he came along and changed roping.”

One of Cooper’s closest friends was country and western singer George Strait, whom Cooper met at the Oklahoma State Fair in 1983.

“We’ll miss you amigo,” Strait posted on X after learning of his friend’s death. “I’ll come find you one day.”

Cooper competed several times at the New Mexico State Fair Rodeo in Albuquerque, as did his cousin Jimmie. But competition wasn’t his only Duke City interest.

This classified ad ran in both the Albuquerque Journal and the Albuquerque Tribune on Feb. 21, 1987:

ROY COOPER

Calf-roping school. April 20th-21st. New Mexico State Fair Grounds. $250 tiedown, $175 breakaway.

Ty Murray, no stranger to New Mexico — Albuquerque’s Ty Murray Invitational bull-riding event bears his name — is a seven-time PRCA all-around champion.

He competed in saddle bronc, bareback and bull riding, not in calf roping.

But, just as a power forward can appreciate the talents of a point guard, a hitter those of a pitcher, Murray expressed immense admiration for Cooper.

Cooper, he told the Journal via text, was a roper like no other.

“Roy was one of those very special guys that once in a very great while you see come along that change the game forever,” Murray wrote.

“Roy has cemented himself as the guy that the legends of the game bow down to.”

In December, Cooper was announced as a 2024 inductee into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame. He joins Murray and Clayton barrel racer Charmayne James Garritano as rodeo competitors so honored.