NFR History In The Making As General Manager Shawn Davis Phases Out and NFR Announcer Boyd Polhamus Takes Over GM Reins (Eventually)
By ALAN SNEL
He's the legend behind the National Finals Rodeo, but 77-year-old NFR General Manager Shawn Davis needs more time with his race horses and his grandchildren after 55 years at the NFR.
So, Davis -- NFR's longtime GM and the man instrumental for moving the Super Bowl of rodeos to Las Vegas from Oklahoma City -- is phasing out of managing the many layers of logistics behind the 10-day event that brings 170,000 rodeo fans to Thomas and Mack Center every December.
And a familiar name (with a very familiar voice) is accepting the baton to become NFR's eventual new GM -- Boyd Polhamus, a 52-year-old former rodeo competitor who is known for his booming NFR announcer voice inside the arena on the UNLV campus.
"The overall responsibility is intimidating," Polhamus said in a LVSportsBiz.com interview alongside Davis this morning in Davis' office tucked in the back of the NFR nerve center in Cox Pavilion, next to Thomas & Mack.