DECATUR, Texas — The arena is silent. The dust has settled. Roy Cooper, the man they called Super Looper, the cowboy who redefined tie-down roping with a flick of his wrist and a fire in his gut, is gone. On April 29, 2025, a house fire on County Road 3051 in Decatur claimed the life of the eight-time world champion, leaving the rodeo world gut-punched and grappling with a loss that cuts deep. He was 69.
Cooper wasn’t just a roper; he was a revolution in boots. Born in 1955 in Hobbs, New Mexico, to a champion roper father, Dale “Tuffy” Cooper, and a ranch-raised mother, Betty Rose Hadley Cooper, Roy was bred for the dirt and the rope. He burst onto the scene in 1976, a rookie at the National Finals Rodeo, and walked away with the world champion title in tie-down roping. It was the first of many. Over a career that spanned decades, he racked up eight world championships—six in tie-down roping, one in steer roping, and one all-around cowboy title—along with a slew of circuit year-end championships. His hands were lightning, his focus iron. He didn’t just win; he rewrote what winning meant.
The man was a force, plain and simple. Cooper’s style—aggressive, precise, fearless—changed tie-down roping forever. He’d leap from his horse, flank a calf, and tie it up in a blur, shaving seconds off times that left competitors slack-jawed. By 1983, he’d clinched the all-around cowboy world title, proving he could dominate beyond the rope. His record reads like a tall tale: countless rodeo victories, a 1995 calf roping championship at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, and a legacy cemented in the ProRodeo Hall of Fame. But it wasn’t just trophies. Cooper’s work ethic was the stuff of legend, honed in the junior ranks and carried through every dusty arena he ever stepped into.
Family was his anchor. Raised in Monument, New Mexico, alongside his kin, Cooper passed his grit to his three sons—Clint, Clif, and Tuf—all of whom became rodeo stars. In 2010, when all three qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in the same year, Roy called it his “Triple Crown.” He’d taught them to rope, to ride, to live the cowboy life, and they’d made him proud. “This is a great life for us,” he said then, his voice thick with pride. The Coopers were rodeo royalty, their name synonymous with the sport.
The fire that took him was merciless. Emergency crews responded to the blaze late on April 29, but the home was engulfed. Cooper was found inside, his life cut short in a tragedy that’s left Decatur reeling. The Wise County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the death, and the rodeo community—competitors, fans, organizers—has been pouring out grief ever since. Statements from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo hailed him as a titan, a man whose absence leaves a hole no one can fill.
Cooper’s life was the arena, his rope an extension of his will. He was 69, a father, a mentor, a champion. The rodeo world mourns not just a legend, but a man who lived the cowboy code to his last breath.