Jerome Davis (bull rider)

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Jerome Carson Davis (born August 10, 1972) is a former American rodeo athlete who specialized in bull riding. He was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, but grew up on the Davis Family Ranch in Archdale, North Carolina. Known as "Jethro," he started riding bulls at age 11 and won his first riding buckle in high school. He was the 1990 North Carolina State High School Bull Riding Champion and competed in the 1989 National High School Finals Rodeo.

Davis attended Odessa Junior College in Texas. In 1992 he won the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association bull riding title at the College National Finals Rodeo in Bozeman, Montana, and that same year he turned professional. He helped found the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) that year and also rode in the Bull Riders Only (BRO) circuit starting in 1993. He appeared as a stunt double in the film 8 Seconds and qualified for his first National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in 1993. In 1994 he founded the Southern Extreme Bull Riding Association (SEBRA), a semi-professional league to help riders move toward the professional level.

Davis made the NFR five times (1993–1997). In 1995 he won the PRCA bull riding world championship and the NFR bull riding average title, and he qualified for the PBR World Finals from 1994 to 1997.

Tragedy struck on March 14, 1998, during the Tuff Hedeman Championship Challenge in Fort Worth. After a fall, he sustained a severe neck injury that left him permanently paralyzed from the chest down. He was engaged at the time, and he and Tiffany Brady later married that year.

After the injury, Davis and his wife ran the Davis Rodeo Ranch in Archdale, raising bucking bulls and hosting events, including the Jerome Davis Invitational, held most years since 1999 (except 2020 due to COVID-19).

In 2022 he became head coach of the Carolina Cowboys in the PBR Team Series. The Cowboys won the Team Series Championship in 2025. Davis has received several honors: the PBR Ring of Honor (1998) and the Bull Riding Hall of Fame (2018). In 2023, he was ranked No. 8 on a list of the top 30 bull riders in PBR history.