04/28/2026
Miracles, do happen. Faith & not giving up, sheer determination!
And they said his life was overâŚ
After three rounds of competition, Oklahoma steer wrestler Chase Crane came back high call and capitalized with a rock-solid 5.5-second run on Sunday afternoon to close the deal on the W with 21.8 seconds on four steers at the 105th Red Bluff Round-Up up in Northern California. Sure happy for him, and that $7,200 he won for cashing checks in all four rounds is a big hit. But for me, the bigger win in life here happened over on the hazing side.
I was there two Mays ago in Corpus Christi, Texas that Saturday nightâMay 11, 2024âwhen Tory Johnson (who hazed for Chase at Red Bluff) ran a runner in the finals of the bulldogging and hit the bucking chutes head first. It was a freak high-speed wreck, and in half a blink the packed, buzzing American Bank Center Arena, which sits right there on the water, went silent. Everyone at that end of the arena described the horrific sound as something similar to a watermelon splattering on asphalt. Tory didnât move, and we didnât either. Johnson left that arena unconscious on a stretcher.
âI coded in the ER that night,â said Johnson, who just turned 41 on April 11 and has against all odds battled his way back to both bulldogging and hazing. âI donât remember anything after riding into the arena that night. All I remember is dreaming that I was talking to my grandparentsâI lost both of my grandfathers in February of 2023; my momâs dad died on February 10, and my dadâs dad died in my arms on February 17.
âI died, and came back to life. I saw the pretty, bright lights of Heaven. But when I was talking to my grandparents, they told me they werenât ready for me yet. Then I went through a tunnel, and woke up during the middle of a CT scan. They had to induce me back into a coma, because I was ripping my IVs out and fighting it, because I didnât know where I was.â
Toryâs traumatic brain injuries included three skull fractures behind his right ear, and another fracture on the top of his skull.
âI knocked my brain all the way loose,â he said. âAnd the fracture on top of my skull started a spinal-fluid leak. When I laid down, the spinal fluid ran into my lungs. When I sat up, spinal fluid ran out of my nose like water.â
Four days later, we were all stunned to learn Tory had been discharged.
âThey discharged me, and sent me home to die,â Johnson says now. âEverybody in the medical field Iâve talked to since says I should have been discharged to a local trauma center, and had no business traveling so soon. That spinal-fluid leak could have drowned me on that 10-hour drive home with my family. When we pulled into Oklahoma City around midnight that night, we went straight to the emergency room. It was obvious I was in no shape to go home.â
They still hadnât found the bottom of his long list of injuries. Tory also fractured his right eye socket in the wreck, which blurred his vision. The hell-force impact also crushed the cochleaâwhich converts sound waves into electrical impulses to the brain, and helps us hearâin his right ear. That cost Johnson half of his hearing and normal balance.
âIâm 100% deaf in my right ear now, and hearing aids wonât help what happened to me,â he said. âThe doctors told me Iâd never walk again without a cane, a walker or some type of walking support, because my equilibrium on my right side will never be the same. I busted my butt in PT to get my balance back.â
His head hurt, he couldnât see clearly and he couldnât hear with his right ear. But one ear was enough to hear his doctors also tell Tory that heâd never ride or rodeo again.
âThe hardest thing Iâve dealt with is the doctors telling me I was done,â Tory said. âI went through sad days, mad days and suicidal days. I was born and raised in rodeo, and I was determined to show myself that I could still do it. The doctors were saying no way. But doctors are human, and God is God. If God had shown me I couldnât bulldog again, I could have accepted it. But He didnât. And here I am.â
It's been a long haul back, and for a time Tory leaned on a cane to walk.
Has he watched the video of the wreck? Nope. Says he doesnât ever want to watch something that might scare him out of going for all the gusto in life.
âI feel like I got a second life,â he said. âAnd now I have a chance to inspire others with my story. There are so many people whoâve had car and motorcycle wrecks, or gotten hurt badly playing football or whatever. For some, itâs not possible. But so many people never get back to doing what they love because they donât fight hard enough.
âI fought for this. When I crashed into those bucking chutes and knocked my brain loose, it was like a computer crashing. I had to reprogram my brain to reach the rest of my body. I won third on that very first steer back after the accident a year later, but only because he took it. My legs didnât work, because my brain didnât send them the signal.â
Chase was traveling with Tory when he returned to the arena a year after the wreck with a helmet on his head. And here they are, two years post TBI, cashing checks. Both made money last week in San Angelo, too.
On a cool horse note, that grey mare Tory hazed on for Chase at Red Bluff, LJ, is the same horse he was bulldogging on the night he got hurt. (Chase rode Coop Reagorâs Vanilla Ice to the Red Bluff win.)
âIâll never be 100% again, and right now my focus is on getting back to the best I can be,â Tory said. âIâm learning to cope with the new me. But at this point in life and after all Iâve been through, my rodeo goal has changed. Whether I win first or last, Iâm just so glad to get to do what I love again.
âIâll keep taking it one steer at a time, but Iâm victorious every time I show up and nod my head. Win or lose, I win just by being back in the saddle and backing into that box. I never gave up, Iâm pretty proud of that, and I want to encourage others to get every possible success out of their lives, too.
âItâs pretty cool that I can inspire people even when I lose. God sat me down to open my eyes, and theyâre wide open now. Like I tell everybody I talk to about my journey, never give up on your hopes, your dreams or your life. I can do this, and so can you.â
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