after holding the lead in the all-around cowboy standings late in the nfr, cooper ended up in second place for the year, behind dee pickett. he did manage to win his fifth straight calf roping season championship. in steer roping, cooper was unable to defend his 1983 championship title; he was in seventh place before a win in the discipline at the nfsr caused him to move up to fourth for the year. in 1985, cooper wound up second in calf roping for the season, though he was the discipline's champion in the winston tour series. he won the cheyenne frontier days rodeo's all-around title in 1989, and by september 1990 was the prca's all-time leading money winner with career earnings of more than $1.1 million. cooper was in sixth place in the 1990 prca nfsr standings, before breaking his left wrist and suffering a concussion in an automobile accident.