Ty Inc.

Ty Murray is more than just the boyfriend of singer-songwriter Jewel. He is, by many accounts, “the most famous cowboy in the world.” He is also a cottage industry.

Want the straw hat he wore during the 1998 bull riding season? It’s available on his web site . . . for $300. Just click on the memorabilia icon. Or swing by his online store, where you can buy everything from Ty Murray T-shirts to Ty Murray spurs.

In the works, a Ty Murray children’s clothing line. Can’t you hear the marketing slogan now? Jeans so tough Ty wears ‘em when he’s getting stomped by a snortin’ 2,000-pound animal!

“He is the Michael Jordan of our sport,” said Randy Bernard, chief executive officer of Professional Bull Riders, Inc.

A seven-time Professional Rodeo Cowboy Assn. champion, Murray has turned his rawhide abilities into a small fortune. He is a founder of Pro Bull Riders, Inc., a group of 20 cowboys who each ponied up $1,000 in 1992 to form the organization--now a $24-million-a-year bonanza with a 29-event Bud Light Cup season that makes a stop Saturday at the Arrowhead Pond.

The money. The fame. And, yeah, the Jewel. This is certainly more than Murray ever expected growing up in a family that “came from a long line of cowboys.” Murray, 31, is just the first to turn that lineage into a big profit.

“No. 1, he has a God-given talent and, No. 2, he just wants it more than anyone else,” said Professional Bull Riders, Inc. President Tuff Hedeman, a former bull rider. “The same things that make Ty successful are the things that made Michael Jordan successful.”

Perhaps, but among the worst things Jordan had to endure was a few seasons with Dennis Rodman as a teammate. Murray, 5 feet 8, 160 pounds, has to ride a very unhappy, 2,000-pound bull every week.

“I decided when I was a kid that this is what I wanted to do,” Murray said. “I was riding on the back of calves when I was 3. Guess that just seemed as natural to me as traffic does to a kid raised in Los Angeles.

“My father broke colts for racetracks and ran horses. I was with him a lot and started helping him when I was young. I just learned by watching him.”

Murray has turned his home-on-the-range upbringing into a home on 2,000 acres in Stephenville, Texas, located between Fort Worth and Abilene. He took Butch, his father, camping and fishing on his land last week. Others tend to the ranch chores.

Of course, Murray’s version of the good life also includes being thrown on his backside an awful lot. He tore cartilage in his ribs on the first day of competition in St. Louis last Saturday. That’s an occupational hazard. He came back Sunday for his two rides and finished second.

Bull riding requires a rider to stay on the bull for eight seconds. He earns points from judges based on the performance of the bull and his own ability to match the moves of the bull.

The challenge makes for “some pretty extreme action,” Hedeman said.

A 100-point ride is perfect. A 90-point ride is nirvana. Just surviving is success.

“It’s no crazier than going 200 miles per hour in NASCAR,” Bernard said. “But if you wreck a car, you get in another one. You wreck your body, you’re out four months.”

Or more. Murray was out for three years, from 1995-97, after knee and shoulder surgeries.

“Our sport is a little bit different, a little edgier, than others,” Murray said.

Murray is its brightest star. He turned pro at 18, the minimum age that one can join the Pro Rodeo Cowboy Assn. Tour. The last two years, he competed strictly for Pro Bull Rider, Inc., a proletariat organization.

“There were all these little bull riding events all over the country,” Murray said. “The shows weren’t very good and the promoters were making all the money. We got the best riders together and formed the PBR. Anybody who does anything for a long time is going to have ideas on how to do it more efficiently.”

Still, no one could have envisioned the cash cow Murray has become.

His face is on cereal boxes and this week he filmed guest spots on ARLI$$ and the X-show. And he has a lengthy list of sponsors, including the city of Las Vegas.

“People like him because he’s very black and white,” Bernard said. “He tells things how he sees them. He’s got looks, so women like him. He dates Jewel. That says a lot right there.”

Tony Garritano, Murray’s agent, said Murray has been able to cash in on a longtime dream.

“People, whether they live in New York City or on a ranch, have some type of tie to the American West,” Garritano said. “It’s part of our culture. Every kid wants to be cowboy at least for a day.”

And, with Murray’s help, they can. Only a web-site click away are the billets off the bronco saddle he used from 1989-94, for only $250. There’s the bull rope he used to win the 1994 world title. Price: $4,500. And, of course, the Ty Murray Video “celebrating the life and times of the World’s Great Cowboy” is available in the Ty Murray store for $15.

But Murray says he is not in this entirely for the money.

“Growing up, I looked up to cowboys like Larry Mahan and Jim Shoulders,” Murray said. “That is like some kid saying he looked up to Bart Starr. They were legends.

“This is all I want to do. This is something I practiced every day at home since I was 3. It was all I thought about. Whenever I was riding, I was riding for the world championship.”

He took those childhood dreams to a record seven all-around titles in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn. He earned more than $3 million in prize money and even has an event named after him, the Ty Murray Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M. Murray was inducted into the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame last year.

All that’s missing from the resume is the Pro Bull Rider Bud Light Cup title. He finished second the last two seasons. He is second to Adriano Moraes through seven events this season.

“Ty wants this bad,” Bernard said. “It would be like the final chapter in his book.”

Rest assured, copies will be available online.