[2] Brooks left high school to embark on a ranching career, and entered a rodeo for the first time when he was 20 years old.
His winnings of $1,925 were $37 higher than the number-two bareback rider of that year, Hank Mills,[4] and were enough for him to claim his first discipline championship.
[4] Entering the 1944 rodeo season, Brooks had developed a heart condition and, according to his wife, had been told that he would have to change careers if he still wanted to be alive on his 30th birthday.
[1] Brooks told his wife that he would quit competing in rodeo if he claimed a second straight All-Around Cowboy title.
[1] Of that total, $4,802 came in saddle bronc riding, which was enough for Brooks to win the season title in that field for the second consecutive year.
In addition, Brooks' $3,852 of bareback riding earnings gave him that discipline's season championship; that amount was $1,500 more than Bill Linderman, the runner-up, made for the year.