DECATUR, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – Roy “Super Looper” Cooper, a rodeo legend and a member of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Hall of Fame, died Tuesday in a house fire at his home in Decatur, Texas. He was 69.
“The rodeo world has lost a legend,” the PRCA stated in an announcement following Cooper’s death.
Cooper was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 1979, only a few years after the Rookie of the Year title in 1976. During his career, he won seven individual event world championships, the PRCA noted. He was also one of only 10 people to win three world titles in one year, winning the tie-down roping, steer roping and All-Around titles in 1983.
His roping skills are also what earned him the nickname “Super Looper,” his Hall of Fame bio explains.
In addition to his honors with the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, Cooper has been honored in the Rodeo Historical Society’s Rodeo Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Rodeo Hall of Fame and the Lea County Sports Hall of Fame. In 2024, when he was inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame, the organization called him one of “the most significant former athletes in the state of New Mexico’s History.”
PRCA added that Cooper also went on to host an annual junior world roping championship for over 40 years.
Officials in Wise County, Texas, confirmed Cooper’s death Wednesday after a fire tore through his Decatur home the night before, the Wise County Messenger reported. The cause of the fire was not immediately disclosed.
His son, Tuf Cooper, also a professional rodeo competitor, shared a statement on Cooper’s passing, the Fort Worth Star Telegram reported.
“We’re all in shock and at a loss for words from this tragedy at the moment,” Tuf Cooper said.
Country legend George Strait, whom Cooper has called “one of his very best friends,” said Cooper was one of his heroes in a tribute posted to social media.
“We lost our good friend and my hero Roy Cooper yesterday. He’s with our Lord And Savior Jesus Christ now,” Strait wrote. “God please be with the Cooper family and friends. We’ll miss you amigo. I’ll come find you one day.”
