NASCAR Teams and Drivers Join Forces with the Professional Bull Riders to Raise Funds for Injured World Champion Bull Rider Jerome Davis
3 April 1998
NASCAR Teams and Drivers Join Forces with the Professional Bull Riders to Raise Funds for Injured World Champion Bull Rider Jerome Davis
FORT WORTH, Texas, April 3 -- People from around the country
turned out for the Jerome Davis Fundraiser and Auction at Billy Bob's Texas in
Fort Worth, April 2, where over $130,000 was raised to benefit Jerome Davis
who was recently severely injured in a bull riding accident.
NASCAR teams and drivers and the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) members,
workers and supporters rallied behind Jerome Davis' sports agent company SCM
Marketing, a subsidiary of Manheim Auctions, and Pam Minick, marketing
director of Billy Bob's Texas and reporter for the PBR weekly events on The
Nashville Network, to raise money to benefit the Jerome Davis Rehabilitation
Fund with a live and silent auction of donated items and memorabilia.
Organization of the event began just eight days ago within which nearly 200
items were donated for auction. Both NASCAR and the PBR host Texas events
this weekend in Fort Worth and Odessa respectively.
Twenty-five year old Davis of North Carolina sustained two cracked
vertebrae in the base of his neck when he was knocked unconscious during a
bull ride and thrown to the ground while competing in Fort Worth on March 14.
Davis is currently hospitalized at the Charlotte Institute for Rehabilitation
in North Carolina, where he maintains good medical status and a positive
mental attitude. Prognosis for complete return of mobility in Davis' lower
extremities remains guarded according to medical officials.
"It's a spectacular sight to see these sports and the best of the best
come together for a champion who has so much heart like Jerome," said four-
time World Champion and PBR President Tuff Hedeman, who lives in Morgan Mill,
Texas, and produces the annual Tuff Hedeman Championship Challenge bull riding
event at the Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth. "This is not surprising
though if you know the people who compete and work in these two sports. All
it took was seeing one of our own in need and everyone came out to do their
part."
The donors of the items auctioned off last night included Garth Brooks,
Brooks and Dunn, LeAnn Rimes, George Strait, Las Vegas, NASCAR drivers Dale
Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, Bobby Labonte, Geoff Bodine, Ward
Burton, Harry Gant and PBR members Keith Adams, Adam and Gilbert Carrillo,
Cody Custer, Cody and J.W. Hart, Hedeman, Ty Murray, and Spud Whitman.
The higher ticket items auctioned included Hedeman's all-around champion
gold buckle from the renowned Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, sold for $5,500; a
ticket package for the 1998 National Finals Rodeo complete with lodging at the
Gold Coast Hotel and Casino, sold for $5,500; Garth Brooks' autographed guitar
used at the Charlotte concert, sold for $3,600; Bobby LaBonte's auto racing
helmet and suit, sold for $2,800; Terry LaBonte's racing suit, sold for
$2,500; Dale Earnhardt's helmet, sold for $2,500; Jerome Davis' competition
number from the 1998 Tuff Hedeman Championship Challenge, sold for $2,100.
Bodine, a former Daytona 500 champion who was recently honored with
legendary status by NASCAR according to SCM Marketing, attended and
contributed over $3,000 for various rodeo memorabilia.
Closing out the evening's sale was a PBR world champion gold buckle
donated by Hedeman who won the title in 1995. The buckle, the highest
grossing item of the auction, sold for $11,500, which Hedeman matched dollar
for dollar with a personal donation to the Davis fund.
All of the proceeds earned from the live and silent auction items, the
$3 admission charge into the club for the auction, and the $5 cost to purchase
a card for bidding eligibility will go to benefit the Jerome Davis Fund. The
Jerome Davis Fund where additional donations can also be made is Wachovia
Bank, 10806 North Main Street, Archdale, N.C. 27263. Inquiries for organized
programs for fundraising on behalf of Davis can be made through Jon Schrock,
SCM Marketing, 800-548-2384.
SOURCE Professional Bull Riders, Inc.