The surprising Pennsylvania stars of bull riding

READING, Pa. — Smiles and small talk faded as the clock ticked closer to 8 p.m., and the bull riders pacing in the bowels of the arena settled into their rituals.

Some slathered sticky rosin — for grip — on thick ropes that would be cinched around a bull’s belly. Others sat in aluminum folding chairs, their boots bucking wildly with anticipation. Little boys in cowboy hats looked on, in awe.

Some riders made fists, over and over, with their leather gloves. Eventually, almost all the bull riders made the sign of the cross.

“O pai, filho e o espírito santo,” a Brazilian rider whispered to himself in Portuguese, which translates to “The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

The arena smelled like dirt and livestock, and thousands of cowboy hats were filing in for the show.

Rider Grayson Cole, 25, sat alone in a shower room, listening to Kendrick Lamar’s “TV Off.” He slipped into tight compression shorts, then a large knee brace, before hiking up his jeans and lacing his boots. His belt buckle, embossed with “tour champion,” looked like a chrome billboard.

Then Cole took off his cowboy hat, turned off the music, and bowed his head like the others.

“I ask for safety over all the riders, all the livestock, and the fans,” Cole explained after his prayer. “I thank God for the talent he gave me. And for the bull.”

While the bulls have names like “Manhater,” “Doze You Down,” and, with intended irony, “Snuggles,” Cole said they’re not enemies.

“It’s a situation where you both want to win and only one of you is gonna win,” he explained. “The bulls have a job to do and they seem to know it.”

Cole was one of about 40 riders in Reading in February for the Professional Bull Riders Velocity Tour, one of many stops that culminate in a final championship later this year. He was far and away the hometown favorite, an unlikely Pennsylvanian who’s found success in bull riding, a sport synonymous with states like Texas and Oklahoma.

Cole grew up in Cressona, about 30 miles northwest of the arena, and once his family took him to his first rodeo as a toddler, his career path was set. He debuted on the PBR tour in 2017.

“All I ever wanted to do was ride bulls,” he said a day earlier on the arena’s dirt floor.

Cole started training and competing at youth rodeos in Dauphin, Lebanon, and York Counties with mutton busting — sheep riding — then graduated to riding bull calves. He was athletic and tried youth sports, but always turned back to bulls.

Cole, the reigning Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour champion, was expecting a big turnout of family and friends at the Reading show. He was so excited to be back in Pennsylvania that he skipped a bigger event in Utah that weekend. The sold-out Super Bowl weekend rodeo would be the tour’s only stop in Pennsylvania, a state known more for its dairy cows than bulls. His mother, Nina Krammes, was sitting in a luxury box atop the arena before the Friday night show with family. She said Cole repeated “I’m going to be a bull rider” to anyone who’d listen as a toddler and the family mostly laughed and thought it was cute.

He just never stopped saying it.

“He would ride the dog. He rode a unicycle to train,” Krammes said. “This is all he’s ever wanted to do and his determination and drive made me believe he would do it.”

Another Pennsylvanian, Melvin Byler, stole the show in Reading, though. A native of Emlenton, in Western Pennsylvania, Byler successfully rode a bull named Smooth Criminal on Saturday, the final night of the rodeo, to get the highest score and secure the weekend’s championship.

“I can’t complain,” Byler, 25, said of his win. “It was truly a blessing to be able to perform like that in your home state.”

Byler’s path to professional bull riding was even more unlikely than Cole’s because of his distinctly Pennsylvania upbringing.

“I grew up Amish,” he said. “I didn’t even see bull riding until I was 14 and when I told my parents I wanted to do it, they said it was a phase.”

Like Cole, Byler couldn’t shake bulls, though. He lived on a farm that raised veal calves, and when his parents forbade rodeos, he used to sneak out of his house to watch them. When Byler turned 18, he left home, and the Amish life, for good.

“And I’ve been doing it ever since,” he said. “I want to make a career out of it. I want to do it as long as I can.”

Byler said his family left the Amish community a year after he did, and they’ve since come to watch him.

In Reading, many of the riders were originally from Brazil, and most of them lived together in Decatur, Texas, a legendary rodeo town. According to a D Magazine story, one Brazilian rider named Paulo Crimber was the first to put down roots in Decatur, about 65 miles northwest of Dallas. Now some 50-plus Brazilian riders call the town home, including one of the sport’s best: José Vitor Leme.

“The influx of Brazilian talent in the last decade has revolutionized the PBR,” the organization said.

Texas is a draw for all bull riders and cowboys and Cole wound up there too, eventually. After graduating from Blue Mountain High School, in Schuylkill Haven, he beelined straight to rodeo. He moved to Salem County, in South Jersey, to ride at Cowtown, the nation’s oldest continuous rodeo. He’s making over six figures from wins in professional bull riding.

Cole bought a ranch in Como, in East Texas, and hopes to breed bucking bulls full-time when his riding days are over.

“I want to raise them and haul them around,” he said.

In bull riding, it’s not a matter of “if” you’ll get hurt. Cole has broken ribs, torqued a knee, and, despite wearing a caged helmet, had one bull step square on his face. Luckily, the riders have health insurance through the PBR.

Byler said he’s broken some ribs and bruised a lung out on the dirt.

“I spent a little time with the Lord and the word before I go out,” he said.

Few riders are competing into their 40s and that’s fine with Cole’s mom.

“If he quit now, I wouldn’t be heartbroken,” she said. “I’d like to see it end on a good note, but I know he won’t stop until he’s forced to stop.”