Will Farrell to be inducted into CSC Hall of Fame

Will Farrell of Thermopolis, a two-time national college bull riding champion, will be among the eight former Chadron State College athletes inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame this fall. The ceremonies will be at 6 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 following the Eagles’ football game with New Mexico Highlands.

Fellow national bull riding champion Dustin Elliott, four football players and two basketball players are the other inductees. All were standouts at CSC around the turn of the century.

Farrell said he is honored and excited to be put into the hall of fame as it is a great honor. It’s not something he was planning on, as he only wanted to do the best he could while at school at CSC, but he’s glad he had such a good career to warrant his induction.

Farrell was the Wyoming State High School bull riding champ as a senior at Hot Springs County High School in 1997. He enrolled at Chadron State a year later at least partially because his girlfriend and now his wife, Shawna, was on the Eagles’ basketball team.

Farrell won the College National Finals bull riding champion as a freshman at CSC in 1999 and again as a senior in 2002. Elliott won the title as a sophomore in 2001.

Farrell is one of the few Chadron State rodeo contestants to qualify for the CNFR four times and is the only one to win three Central Rocky Mountain Regional titles and two national championships.

As a college freshman, Farrell placed at six of the nine rodeos to easily win the regional championship. The week before the CNFR in Casper, he tuned up for the big event by staying aboard "Leaping Lizard,” a bull that was previously unridden, at the rodeo in Worland.

At the national finals in Casper, he was bucked off his first bull, placed fourth in both of the next go-rounds and was second in the final go-round with 74 points to win the title by one point over defending national champion Corey Navarre of Southwest Oklahoma.

After winning the championship, Farrell competed at two special events later in the year.

He finished second among 40 entries at the Overland Stagecoach Invitational Bull Riding at Monahans, Texas, in early August and placed fifth among 20 contestants at the International College Finals Rodeo in Maringa, Brazil, in November.

By being the runner-up at the Texas rodeo, he earned $4,000, a large amount for a college student nearly 20 years ago.

As a sophomore at Chadron State, Farrell won the bull riding at four of the 10 rodeos in the region and was fourth in two more. At the college finals, he won the first go-round with 80 points, tied for fifth in the second go-round, but was bucked off during the next two go-rounds to finish seventh in the final standings.

He did not ride any of the three bulls at the finals rodeo in 2001, when Elliott caught fire and was the national champion.

It was Farrell’s turn to win the whole shebang again the next year, giving CSC three national bull riding winners in four years for one of the Nebraska college’s all-time great sports accomplishments.

Farrell proved early that he intended to make his senior year a good one. He won two of the fall rodeos and placed second and third at the remaining two to build a big lead in the standings. He won another first and a third during the spring to lock up his third regional championship.

At the college finals, Farrell rode Widow Maker, Gunpower and Grim Reaper in the first three go-rounds. While he did not make it to the eight-second whistle on Desert Storm in the last performance, no one else stayed aboard in the finals either, and he won the championship by 26.5 points.

Farrell rode 51 of the 82 bulls he drew for an amazing 62 percent during his college career.

Although injuries sidelined him not too long after he had concluded his college career, Farrell qualified for the PRCA National Finals in 2003. He is now a pumper for Merit Energy in an oil field near Thermopolis. Will and Shawna have four children—Roedy, Kamryn, Logann and Ben. Each of the oldest three has already won at least one saddle at youth rodeos.

Will also is among the leaders in Thermopolis’ USA Wrestling Program, is an assistant middle school wrestling coach and coaches youth football. He has seven years under his belt coaching wrestling. He officially coached the peewee football league for three years, but has volunteered with the youth football program for an additional four. His parents, Scott and Marilyn, live in Texas.