Little Yellow Jacket

Little Yellow Jacket was bred on the Berger family ranch, named Rafter Arrow Ranch, in Mandan, North Dakota, by Joe Berger and his son Nevada. "'You can't train him to be a bucking bull,' said Berger on LJ's natural talent. 'It's about breeding and blood lines. He got it bred into him. The only thing you can train him is to not buck in the chute.'" After Tom Teague of Tom Teague Bucking Bulls got involved with the PBR, he became interested in Little Yellow Jacket. In 2002, Teague tried to persuade owner Joe Berger to sell him a half interest in Little Yellow Jacket while in Denver, Colorado, but Berger would not do so until Little Yellow Jacket had won a World Champion Bull title. Little Yellow Jacket made his debut in the PBR in the year 1999 and went to his first PBR World Finals that year. Little Yellow Jacket competed in the major leagues of the PBR - the Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) (known as the Bud Light Cup Series until 2003) starting in his first year. From the beginning to the end of his career, Little Yellow Jacket was said to either "help a rider earn a score in the elite 90s or he'd serve up a dirt sandwich". The bull seemed to know when he won. He mostly had a reputation for being a gentle bull. At the PBR World Finals in 1999, Ty scored a 90.5 on Little Yellow Jacket. And it was Little Yellow Jacket's first time in the BFTS. All of Little Yellow Jacket's 14 qualified rides were scored at 90 points or higher except one. He went on to become the World Champion bull three times (2002 through 2004). Cody Lambert, who was himself a bull rider when younger, said of Little Yellow Jacket at the time, "He's the greatest bull that the PBR has ever seen," He became the first bull to win three world titles and also finished runner-up to 2-time World Champion bull #81 Dillinger in 2001. Bruiser has since tied Little Yellow Jacket's record of three consecutive titles when he won his third title in 2018. At the end of his career, Little Yellow Jacket had a buck off rate of 83.53%, with an average buck off time of 2.66 seconds. Before his death, the bull was scheduled to be the inaugural inductee in the PBR's Brand of Honor, and would have been honored in person at a ceremony at the 2011 PBR World Finals. However, Little Yellow Jacket died earlier in that year before the ceremony, which took place without him just prior to the 2011 World Finals opening. ==Historic rides==

Michael Gaffney, Chris Shivers, and Bubba Dunn shared the record for highest marked ride in PBR history until Saturday, July 31, 2021, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when José Vitor Leme rode Woopaa for 97.75 points, creating a new record. High Marked Ride Until July 31, 2021, it was the highest ride score that three men recorded a score of 96.5, doing so on four different bulls between 1999 and 2004: Bubba Dunn rode Promise Land in 1999. Chris Shivers rode Jim Jam in 2000, and Dillinger in 2001. Michael Gaffney rode Little Yellow Jacket at Nampa in 2004. After Leme's ride creating a new record, Dunn and Gaffney acknowledged his record. Shivers was not available for comment. Going to meet him in Nampa, Idaho, both rider and bull had earned fierce reputations and world titles. Michael Gaffney had attempted Little Yellow Jacket twice before and been bucked off each time without a qualified ride. Gaffney is one of many bull riders who describe Little Yellow Jacket as one of the great bucking bulls in history. "He's one of the greatest bulls in the world," Shivers said after the ride. "My hat's off to him." This article spoke about Shivers being the rider who set the 90-point standard. ==Pedigree==

Little Yellow Jacket was a dark red Brangus bull. His grandsire was #LH600 Wrangler Rivets and his grandam another Berger cow. Wrangler Rivets was a champion bucking bull who won 13 competitions as a bucking bull. ==Retirement and death==

Little Yellow Jacket's owners, a partnership of Joe and Nevada Berger, Bernie Taupin, and Tom Teague, retired him at the end of 2005. Little Yellow Jacket was kept in a pen when the truck/trailer would pull up to take the other bulls away for the bull riding events. The Bergers honored his request, so that Little Yellow Jacket could live at Teague Bucking Bulls in North Carolina instead of North Dakota and enjoy milder winters. Little Yellow Jacket spent his last five years at Teague's ranch. "Little Yellow Jacket was a tremendous athlete, and the mere mention of his name brings great memories to fans of our sport," said PBR CEO Jim Haworth. "He will certainly be remembered as one of the all-time greats." After Little Yellow Jacket's death, the home page of Teague's website became a memorial to the bull. ==Honors==

• 2001 PBR Bull of the World Finals • Seven trips to the PBR World Finals (1999–2005) • Three-time PBR World Champion Bull, winning the title in consecutive years from 2002 through 2004. First living animal to be inducted. • ProBullStats Hall of Fame • 2022 inducted into the Bull Riding Hall of Fame in the "Bulls" category. • 2023 was ranked No. 6 on the list of the top 30 bulls in PBR history. • He is immortalized in a bronze statue with former bull rider and fellow three-time PBR World Champion Adriano Morães at the PBR's world headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. ==References==