J.W. Harris (bull rider)  James William Harris, known as J.W. Harris (born July 14, 1986) is an American professional bull rider on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) tour. He won the PRCA Bull Riding World Championship four times at the National Finals Rodeo (NFR). He is a former competitor on the Professional Bull Riders (PBR)’s elite tour, the Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS). He also competed on the Championship Bull Riding (CBR) tour. Harris is the first bull rider since Don Gay to win four PRCA world bull riding titles. He is also the first since Gay to win three of them consecutively. Harris is also the 2014 PBR Rookie of the Year. James William Harris was born on July 14, 1986, in Coleman, Texas. He was named after a roughstock rider, James Garlick, and his own great-grandfather, William. His father, Mark, was the Texas Circuit Rookie of the Year in 1989. Harris was raised in Peaster, Texas, because his father was employed on a ranch there. When Harris was 15 years old, the family moved to May, Texas. He was one of an 18-person graduating class at May High School. All of Harris' family are rodeo people. He sat his first bull when he was 4 years old. When he was 18 years old, Harris also experimented with saddleback bronc riding and bareback bronc riding, but discovered he did not have the temperament for it, so he decided to focus on bull riding. In 2004, Harris hit the semi-professional rodeo trail for the Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association (CPRA), won the year-end bull riding championship for said organization, and won $6,501.23 prize money. The next year, he started competing professionally. He competed in the PRCA from 2005 to 2014. Starting in 2007, Harris joined the PBR tour, in one of the lower level tours, the Touring Pro Division. He competed on the BFTS from 2014 to 2017. He competed on the CBR tour from 2009 to 2014, then again in 2018. In January 2018 he announced he would retire from the PBR and return to the PRCA. Going forward in 2018, Harris is competing solely in the PRCA. Harris joined the PRCA in 2005. In his first year as a professional he managed on little money for expenses. Following a no score in Nampa, Idaho, he ran out of money for expenses.