NFR General Manager Shawn Davis, who just turned 77, is handing the reins of the GM job to longtime NFR announcer Boyd Polhamus during the next three years. Photo credit: Erik John Ricardo/LVSportsBiz.com

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.
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Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.