Kyle Lockett Reflects on Rookie Year as He Readies to Let ’er Buck

meat, then and now

Since his rookie season and NFR 28 years ago, Kyle Lockett reflects on his career.

It’s been 28 years since I snapped this shot of Walt Rodman and Kyle Lockett out in the warmup tent at the Thomas & Mack Center at the 1997 NFR. It was Walt’s fourth Finals; his first as a header, which at that time made him one of six NFR switch-enders. It was 20-year-old Kyle’s first Finals, and he was also crowned that year’s 1997 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year during the 10-day run of Rodeo’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas.

Lockett just pulled off a little switch-end magic of his own last week, over Labor Day Weekend, when he won the 2025 Oakdale 10 Steer heading for 17-year-old Ross Rivera in California’s original Cowboy Capital of the World. Lockett, who’s 47 now and lives in Visalia, and Rivera of nearby Terra Bella, roped 10 steers in 105.54 seconds to win the tradition-rich event.

The man they call “Meat” won the Oakdale 10 Steer the first time heeling behind brother Blaine in 1992, when Jim and Sharyn Lockett’s caboose, Kyle, was 14. Kyle Lockett won the 10 Steer again heading for TJ McCauley in 2007, when McCauley was just a kid.

Lockett has lived a lot of life since that first NFR. He and his wife, Leigh, are Mom and Dad to Shayla, Georgia, Sutton, Blevins, Collins and Ledge. Kyle’s roped at eight NFRs, the last one in 2019 with fellow Timed Event Champ Erich Rogers—Kyle won Rodeo’s Ironman in 2005 and 2011, and Rogers won the timed-event marathon in 2022.

What does Lockett remember about that first Finals his rookie year in Vegas, besides the fact that he was only 20 and never got carded when he wanted a beer?

“Back then, everybody was at the Gold Coast—that or the Stardust to go see Ricky and the Redstreaks,” Kyle remembers. “And if you had an NFR jacket on, you could do about anything you wanted. When you’re at your first NFR, it’s just a shock you even got there, especially when you’re that young and it’s your first time trying. It was kind of a surprise to get it done like we did. Walt and I basically had it made at Salinas (in July). We went in fifth that year with about $45,000 a man.”

Lockett’s always lived within his means, and rode a sorrel horse at NFR ’97 he called Dollar that he’d bought for cheap from Mark Sturman earlier that year at the Chowchilla Stampede. Kyle roped with Rodman the year before, too, while on his permit, and to this day highly recommends young bucks join forces with veterans in the early going of their careers.

“Walt had a rig, and knew how to get there,” Kyle said. “I was just a kid. I pretty much lived with Walt there in Galt, and he helped me so much with everything when it was all new to me.

“We had a rough start to that 1997 season. We got in a wreck on our first road trip on our way to Odessa (Texas in January). We hit black ice, the trailer came unhooked and was sliding on its side, and crashed into the truck. It hurt two of our horses, and totaled Walt’s trailer. Cody Cowden was with us, too, and had to go to the hospital with a cut on his shoulder. He was the lucky one, because he was basically ok, and Walt and I were standing out there in the freezing cold.

“I was pretty much broke after the winter. Walt said we needed to keep going, and that we’d win and I could pay him back later. So that’s what we did. We placed about everywhere from that point on. The catch percentage back then was very high for everybody. If you drew a good one, you placed. If not, you were ready next time you did.”

Things were a little different at the Thomas & Mack in those days. That was before the down-front Gold Buckle seats replaced the moat that ran the length of the arena, and the team ropers watched the bulldogging right before they went horseback from the moat.

“It would have been a lot scarier at my first one if we’d had to come from back behind the chutes, like they do now,” Lockett said.

Rodman and Lockett were 4.8 to split the win in Round 3 with Speed Williams and Rich Skelton.

“Walt and I decided Speed and Rich had enough of those go-round buckles. They didn’t need them, so we took ’em,” Lockett laughs now. “Getting to rope at the NFR was just a blast, especially that young. It was like nothing else.”

Kyle and I had this little catch-up call as he was wheeling into the Pendleton Round-Up rodeo grounds this morning. The cowboy migration is on, and the rest of the pack will be right along after Puyallup plays out in neighboring Washington. Lockett was the Pendleton all-around champ at the 100^th annual Round-Up in 2010. He’ll this year heel for Tyler Waters and steer rope.

Let ’er Buck!