Over the years, Silcox and Davis have accumulated their laundry lists of injuries and hard knocks to prove they're not just flashes in the pan, their parents said.

Three years ago, Davis was riding a bronc and dislocated a muscle on his right collarbone that kept him sidelined for nearly seven months. Several times, a few horses almost left hoof prints on the back of his skull, Davis said.

And that includes one of his first rides.

"That flipped me pretty quick," he laughed, recalling the experience. "They tell me he dang near kicked my head off."

Recently, Silcox had his own bout of setbacks. In the first round of last year's national rodeo, Silcox injured his wrist, but he pressed on and finished the competition in third place, earning himself a $65,600 payday.

Afterward, he had to have surgery, Brad Silcox said.

This year, Silcox "got real hot" and started winning big rodeo after big rodeo, Brad Silcox said. Then, disaster struck again. In September, Silcox was riding a bull in Omaha, Neb., when he broke his jaw and eye socket.

The injury required surgery, and doctors had to wire his jaw shut, Feild said. Silcox lost a bit of weight, and, more importantly, he missed seven weekends of tune-up rodeos before the big show.

Silcox still entered the competition as a high-ranked contender, but he was nervous because he'd only ridden a few practice bulls in the two months prior to the national rodeo. But that didn't hold him back.

"It's just like riding a bike," he said.

Injury or not, there was a feeling in the air that this was Silcox's year. Before the rodeo started, Rod Davis, Jess Davis' dad, found Brad Silcox outside the Thomas and Mack Center, where the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association holds the finals, and shook his hand.

"He's got it won," Rod Davis said.

"Ah, I don't know about that," Brad Silcox replied.

"Oh, yes he will," Rod insisted. "He's just gotta ride."

And that he did. Silcox rode so fabulously, the crowd knew he had it won the moment he hopped off his bull — named Wolf Can Do — on Saturday night, Feild said.

"I was extremely happy for him," he said. "I kinda know what he's going through."

Though Jess finished as a runner-up, he's not playing the "what if" game, his dad said.

"There was no looking back," Rod Davis said. "If you look back you dwell on it too much."

When Davis was 12, Feild let him ride a practice bull — with his dad's approval, of course — and since that day he's watched him improve. For his part, Feild thinks Davis rode every horse as well good as can be expected for the cards he was dealt.

"He didn't draw that well," he said, referring to the way rodeo officials determine — or draw — riders and horses.