CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Lane Frost, a former world-champion bull rider, died

Sunday after being stomped and gored by a bull before a crowd of more than

10,000 on the final day of the Frontier Days rodeo.

Frost, 25, was reported dead on arrival after being rushed from the

rain-soaked arena to Memorial Hospital in Cheyenne.

Laramie County Coroner Roger Radomsky said Frost died after

his broken ribs punctured a major blood vessel.

Kathy Ziemann, nursing supervisor at the hospital, said

Frost's heart was not beating when he was taken from the

arena. A physician at the hospital tried in vain to revive

him on arrival.

Frost, who had moved to Quanah, Texas, from Lane, Okla.,

won the bull-riding world championship in 1987.

He was the next to last cowboy to ride when he broke from

the chute aboard a bull called "K. Walsh."

Although Frost managed to complete his eight-second ride,

he was thrown over the bull's shoulders onto the ground.

As the crowd watched, the bull dipped one horn down to the

ground and gored and trampled Frost.

Frost managed to stand up and gestured for help with one

finger as he held his arm to his side. Then he collapsed.

Paramedics tried to revive him before rushing him off in

an ambulance.

"Lane Frost was a very young, very happy man," said Roy

Cooper, who lived 20 miles from Frost's Texas home.

"He loved to ride bulls, he loved rodeo and he loved people,"

said Cooper, who finished the rodeo as the best all-around

cowboy, but spent his time after the competition praying

for his friend, rather than celebrating his victory.

Cooper recalled telling Frost earlier this week that his

performance at Cheyenne had broken a string of bad luck.

"I told him, `Maybe the ice has melted,' " Cooper recalled.

"He was fired up about a big win at Cheyenne."

Ironically, Frost's final ride earned him the second-highest

bull-riding score of the rodeo.

Frost was born in Kim, Colo., and was runner-up for the

1983 Rookie of the Year. He was the 1987 Texas Prorodeo

Circuit Champion and 1983 Prairie Circuit champion. He also

was a runner-up bull rider in the Winston Tour in 1986,

and the National Finals Rodeo bull-rider average winner

in 1986.

Frost, who was graduated from Atoka High School in 1982,

started participating in rodeos when he was about 12 years

old, said Dodie Wilson, a family friend who lives in Atoka.

She said Frost learned to ride as a youngster while his

family lived in Wyoming and Colorado. The Frosts, who operate

a ranch, moved to Oklahoma about 10 years ago.

Wilson said Frost's parents, a brother and a sister still

live in Lane, a small town about 10 miles from Atoka.