From the hit TV series “Yellowstone” to Beyoncé’s Grammy-nominated “Cowboy Carter,” more Americans are becoming cowboy curious in a way not seen since Glen Campbell proclaimed he was a rhinestone cowboy, and it shows no signs of being reined in.
Here in Illinois, groups such as the Broken Arrow Horseback Riding Club and the Latting Rodeo keep cowboy culture alive. But nationally, one company seems to ride supreme, and they’re not galloping in on stallions. This weekend, they’re bringing the show to Illinois.
PBR, or Professional Bull Riders, has ridden the Western wave across the country, and will bring professional bull riders to the Allstate Arena Friday and Saturday with its signature Unleash The Beast event.
The weekend will feature individual riders and members of PBR Teams, the company’s competitive bull-riding league, earning points that go toward the 2025 individual championship. Fans will also see an exhibition rivalry game from PBR Teams.
Founded in 1992 through the efforts of businessman Sam Applebaum and a collection of professional bull riders, the company sold out three nights last weekend at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
“We’ve been bringing cowboys and cowboy sports to major markets across the country for more than three decades,” PBR CEO Sean Gleason said.
Gleason, who started with the company in 1999 and was named CEO in 2015, “wrote the plan” that became PBR Teams. The sport takes the well-known aspects of individual bull riding and amplifies them.
“We made the game five-on-five bull riding and a team sport,” Gleason said. This helps heighten the presentational aspects of the event — which are already high, even when riders are competing only for themselves.
Each summer, 10 teams from across the United States compete for a spot in the October championship in Las Vegas.
Gleason noted, however, that they didn’t change bull riding at all. “It’s still one rider, one bull, eight seconds,” he said.
Those riders, Gleason promised, are the best of the best. “You have to perform to get paid, and you have to work your way through the ranks,” Gleason said.
The team rosters for this weekend’s event feature the Carolina Cowboys and Nashville Stampede. And many of the riders hail from one state nearly synonymous with the words “cowboy” and “rodeo”: Texas.
But just as many come from far afield of what may be thought of as the Wild West — New York and Oregon, for example, or even internationally. PBR also has divisions in Australia, Brazil, Canada and Mexico.
Any bull rider who holds a PBR membership can work their way up and onto a team.
“There’s no guarantees,” Gleason said. “You have to keep performing against your peers in order to keep performing at the highest level.”
That highest level, he said, is the Unleash the Beast tour and the PBR teams that feature on them. And while the teams are currently all-male, Gleason said there are no restrictions on who can ride. He welcomes any rider who wants to “make millions of dollars and be a professional athlete.” They just have to earn that place.
The riders aren’t the only athletes earning their spots, however.
“There are two great athletes in every ride,” Gleason said. “One is an animal athlete and one’s a cowboy athlete.”
Bulls, he said, earn their right to compete, and are hired from event to event through independent stock contractors, who raise and handle them. “We only select the bulls that are deemed to be the best of the best,” he said, adding that they treat every bull with “utmost respect,” keeping in line with “the most stringent animal welfare policies in the business.”
“We take great care of our animal athletes,” Gleason said.
Audience members, of course, don’t need to ride a bull to the event — or even leave their house. CBS will air the rivalry game starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.
People wishing to make their whole weekend a country affair could giddy up and giddy out to Bub City, 435 N. Clark St., or, farther north on Clark, Carol’s Pub in Uptown, 4659 N. Clark St. And every Friday, music lovers can join the Hoyle Brothers for Hard Country Honky Tonk at the Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western Ave.
PBR’s Unleash the Beast stampedes into the Allstate Arena in Rosemont starting at 7:45 p.m. Friday.
Ryan P.C. Trimble is a freelance writer.
