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Don Gronning
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Recurring Newport rodeo contestant Caleb McMillan of Soap Lake, Wash., captured one of the most prestigious awards in professional rodeo, the Linderman Award.
The Linderman Award, named after Montana’s Bill Linderman, goes to the cowboy who wins the most money in three events, including a timed event and a rough stock event.
McMillan finished the season with $49,837 across his four events, including more than $1,500 at Newport’s Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association Rodeo in June. He won fourth in the tie down roping and fifth in bull riding. For the season, McMillan won $31,267 in bull riding, $9,080 in tie-down roping, $7,322 in steer wrestling and $2,168 in steer roping.
McMillan said the Linderman Award spotlights the dwindling number of cowboys who still compete in timed events and rough stock.
“It’s the work in both ends of the arena,” McMillan, 26, told ProRodeo Sports News. “You don’t see that hardly at all anymore. I know back in the day it was a big deal and there were a lot of guys who did it. But now there’s not very many.”
He said the award is an honor. “This is really cool,” McMillan said. “I’ve come close a few times but never got it done. This is my first time and it’s quite an honor.
“There are a lot of good cowboys (who’ve won the Linderman) that I’ve looked up to my whole life while rodeoing: Phil Lyne, the Whitakers, and Josh Frost. The list of guys who have won the Linderman are pretty good cowboys.” He said NFR bull rider Josh Frost has won the Linderman, competing in bull riding and tie down roping.
“The last couple of years (the hard part) has been trying to win enough money to beat Josh Frost because he usually wins quite a bit in the bull riding,” McMillan said.
“I’ve never really had a problem qualifying for the Linderman, just winning enough money to beat Josh.”
McMillan said he and Frost are pretty good friends, and Frost told him at the Ellensburg (Wash.)
Rodeo in late August that a fifth Linderman wasn’t in the cards for him this season.
“He said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to get qualified, and you better make sure you’ve got enough money to win it,’” McMillan recalled. “So, I had a pretty good idea because Josh is the toughest competitor there is.”
McMillan will travel to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas this December to receive the Linderman Award during Round.
“I’d say I’m probably not going to do much different (next year),” McMillan said. “I’ll just keep rodeoing and doing what I do.
But this is a goal I’ve had for a very, very long time and it’s kind of a weight lifted off my shoulders. I finally got one.”
