Rodeo champion found higher calling in Texas

Jeff Copenhaver found out being on top of the world wasn’t the pinnacle of life.

Though many factors played into the reason his life changed direction, nothing had a bigger impact than winning the 1975 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world championship in tie-down calf roping.

“It was great to accomplish a goal that was my whole life,” said Copenhaver, the son of Hall of Fame saddle bronc rider Deb Copenhaver of Creston. “It consumed my every thought, every breath, my very existence. That night I sat on the edge of my bed and asked, ‘Is that all there is?’ Even with the satisfaction of accomplishing that there was a void, and it started a three-year search.”

Three years later, at a rodeo in Madison Square Garden, Copenhaver, who was calling Spokane home back then, and his wife, Sherry, ran into an old friend, “a calf roper from Connecticut, you can imagine how rare that is,” Copenhaver said.

The Copenhavers were struck by his demeanor.

“I could just see the peace, the contentedness, that something good had happened to him,” said Copenhaver, who now lives in Texas.

After grilling their friend, the Copenhavers returned to their motel.

“We knelt down at the end of our bed,” he recalled, “and asked Jesus Christ into our hearts.”

And if it seemed like Copenhaver was on the go chasing his rodeo dream, that was nothing.

He kept roping part-time through 1995, but in 1986, during the huge Fort Worth winter rodeo, he was invited to start the first cowboy church at Billy Bob’s, the biggest honky tonk in the world. After two years there and at another location, he built a church in nearby Granbury, using seven semitruck loads of logs from Republic.

“We built a Northwest-looking building no one in Texas had ever seen,” Copenhaver said. “God had to trick us. I wanted to keep roping. He had another plan.”

Now there are an estimated 1,000 non-denominational churches in Texas alone, but, Copenhaver said, “We didn’t start some association.”

An old newspaper article said a story on National Public Radio described cowboy church “as a blend of fundamentalist teaching, down-home homily and us-versus-them sentiment. … The ministry is sometimes criticized by, and critical of, the more heavily structured churches.”

“It’s not a social club, not a country club atmosphere,” Copenhaver said. “A lot of people don’t have confidence in a formal church. It’s pretty laid back and real. God has touched our lives. … We’re just passing the good news on to others.”

Like when Jesus told his disciples to follow him and become fishers of men, Copenhaver said, “Instead of fishing, we’re ropers and instead of roping calves, we rope people for the gospel.”

Copenhaver, who qualified for the NFR six times, has reason to believe, which goes beyond the time in 1975 when, racing toward the world title, the plane he was riding in ran out of gas, but found a safe landing.

“That was a big part,” he admitted.

But no bigger than Sherry being diagnosed with cancer in the late ’70s and told she wouldn’t have children. Their daughter, Shandy, was recently married and lives outside of Dallas.

Or bigger than being told in 1978 that he would never rope again because of an arm injury, only to return to his winning ways six weeks later.

Copenhaver credits the power of prayer.

“It was so exciting to see the Lord was real … there was power to heal, power to change people’s lives,” he said. “I got so excited I quit roping calves for 3 1/2 years. That was when I was 29, that’s prime time for calf ropers.”

When he resumed roping he was still competitive, placing second at the Calgary Stampede in 1984.

“Looking back, it was usual to walk away from that kind over rodeo career,” he said. “But I’ve been the one that benefited.”

Copenhaver, 59, was just a sprite when his dad, who helped start the National Finals Rodeo, won world championships in 1955 and ’56, and his heroes were always cowboys. The course was set when he met Jim Bob Altiser, who won the calf roping championship at the first NFR in 1959, when he was 12.

“When I shook his hand I knew I could be a world champion,” he recalled.

Copenhaver became a roper because he shot up to 5-foot-10, which is big to ride bucking animals, and learned on his own, though he said former PRCA roper Bob Ragsdale, who was living at Hayden Lake, gave him some tips.

“I loved to play football,” the 1967 graduate of Benton City said. “Flanking and tying was like football contact. I practiced for hours. I’d rope but we didn’t have the money … to practice off a horse.

“That’s why the year before I won the world championship I roped 10,000 practice calves in four months. That’s extreme, to say the least; I roped 105 calves a day for 100-and-some days. I love to practice. To be great you have to love practicing.”

As Copenhaver chased his dream he had to pass some Hall of Famers such as Dean Oliver, eight-time champion; Barry Burke, a 17-time NFR qualifier; and Tom Ferguson, the ’74 champion and five-time all-around champ. In 1976, when Copenhaver finished fifth, the tie-down champ was rookie Roy Cooper, the first of his six titles. Copenhaver was on top of the standings in 1978 when he blew out his elbow.

“I think I was really coming into my own,” he said. “I was getting to be a better horseman. But God had another plan.”

Deb Copenhaver is just as passionate as his son, recently finishing a roadside chapel near Creston, but it took time.

“In September of 1978 I sat in the bleachers at Creston and talked to him,” the second-generation champion recalled. “He said: ‘Now get off your soapbox. I’ll watch your life for a year.’ Two years later he gave his life to the Lord.”

These days Copenhaver is training or coaching young ropers, thanks to a new “Stryker” hip put in by Dr. Crawford at the Texas Hip and Knee Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Copenhaver reported enthusiastically.

He’s also distributing his book of devotionals, 52 stories he has written over the years. Starting next year in the Northwest, his goal is to take 30,000 to 100,000 to each state. He gave away 4,200 at the NFR in Las Vegas last year and is there again now.

“Through coaching, training, dad’s career, my career, that’s opened the door to a lot of people,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity for the ministry. It’s just a people profession.”

And to his way of thinking, he’s at the top.