Lovell, Eaves Win 2020 PRCA Team Roping Titles
By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter
EAST TEXAS – Houston County has a long history with rodeo. A bust of Myrtis Dightman sits in front of the Porth Ag Arena. Known as the “Jackie Robinson of Rodeo”, Dightman was the first African-American to compete at the National Finals Rodeo (NFR).
Just last month, Lovelady native Boudreaux Campbell won the Professional Bull Riders World Finals to etch his name in Houston County Rodeo lore.
Now, an extended member of the Houston County family has added another title to the mix as Colby Lovell and Paul Eaves claimed the 2020 PRCA Team Roping World Titles. Lovell is the son of Houston County native Joel Lovell and currently resides in Madisonville. He is also the cousin of Houston County Judge Jim Lovell.
For Colby Lovell, 33, it was his first career World Title. He did it thanks to an impressive NFR where he earned $122,326. The team of Lovell and Eaves capped it off with the fastest time in Round 10 at 4.4 seconds.
“It’s unreal,” Lovell said after claiming the title. “I can’t describe the feeling right now, it’s unreal.”
Speaking with The Cowboy Channel following the team’s final ride, Lovell commented, “Everything this week we’ve been through with the ups and downs and trying to stay focused, do our job and being fortunate enough here at the end, I didn’t have any jitters. If it came together, it came together. I told my wife if it happens, it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. Paul and I talked before this and I made up my mind if Luke (Brown’s) run placed in the round, I was just going to go win money and try to get paid, but the way it fell together, Paul and I were talking and I said we’ll try to win the round.”
On the year, Lovell earned more than $187,000 which edged out Luke Brown by less than $500. Had Brown placed in Round 10 it would have been his Gold Buckle.
A big reason for the win was a friendship Lovell had developed with Cody Nessmith, who had passed away earlier in the year.
Lovell had a chance encounter at a Louisiana ProRodeo with NesSmith’s dad, Tony, who told him about his son, 23-year-old Cody, who was battling Ewing’s Sarcoma, a bone cancer mainly found in children, and deeply loved team roping.
“A fast friendship developed between Lovell and the Louisiana kid who loved to come stay at the Lovell’s Madisonville, Texas, home, in between his chemo treatments at St. Jude. That friendship defined Lovell’s last 12 months and shaped him in ways he never expected,” according to an article in The Team Roping Journal
The article stated that friendship led Nessmith to the deep, unwavering belief that Lovell would win the PRCA’s world title in 2020. This belief – despite Nessmith’s untimely death in July of this year – came to fruition when Lovell and Eaves won the last three rounds of the 2020 WNFR in spectacular fashion to secure the championship.
Lovell found inspiration in the war he watched NesSmith fight against his cancer. He had a reminder of NesSmith with him in Arlington, too—the rope NesSmith used at the WSTR Finale, as well as a patch with NesSmith’s brand on his shirt.
“Cody changed my life, and he made me try hard. The stuff he’s been through and what I’ve seen, there’s no sense in me ever weakening. I just kept pushing kept pushing, kept pushing,” he said in the article.
For more information on this amazing story pleases see the complete article found at www.teamropingjournal.com/news/as-fate-would-have-it-lovell-and-eaves-win-2020-prca-team-roping-world-titles-in-inspiring-fashion.
Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].
