Roy Cooper was born November 13, 1955 in Hobbs, NM. He was raised on a ranch. He was a pro rodeo cowboy that competed in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association since 1976. During his pro rodeo career he won the All-Around Cowboy Championship in 1983, and claimed seven individual discipline championships, including six tie-down roping titles. 1976, Cooper won the organization’s tie down roping championship and won the event at the National Finals Rodeo. He broke the record for the most prize money won by a rookie cowboy, and earned the PRCA’s Rookie of the Year award. He was nicknamed “Super Looper” for his roping abilities.
At the 1978 Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, he led all cowboys in prize money won, and his calf-roping winnings were the largest recorded in any non-National Finals Rodeo event at the time.[
In 1983, Cooper won the All-Around Cowboy championship, steer wrestling
and calf roping season championship. This made him the first PRCA competitor since 1958 to win three disciplines season championships and the fourth cowboy in PRCA history. Cooper broke the record for yearly prize winnings with $153,390.84 in earnings, and claimed the National Finals Rodeo calf roping title at the end of the season. In calf roping, he set a season record in earnings with $122,455 for the year.
By September 1990 was the PRCA’s all-time leading money winner with career earnings of more than $1.1 million. At a 2000 rodeo in Lovington, New Mexico, he surpassed $2 million in earnings; Cooper was the first to reach this mark in rodeo. As of 2011, Cooper remained a part-time competitor in rodeo events. The Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame inducted Cooper in 1979. Cooper was part of the Hall’s inaugural class of enshrines Cooper and other members of his family have founded the Cooper Rodeo Foundation, which aids children and young adults in rodeo.