FORMER TRAPPER COWBOY NAMED 2024 LINDERMAN AWARD RECIPIENT

BY SETH ROMSA TRIBUNE SPORTS WRITER
Courtesy of the Powell Tribune

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The PRCA Linderman Award is one of the most prestigious awards in PRORODEO.

It recognizes a cowboy who won at least $1,000 in three events, and those events must include at least one roughstock and one timed event.

The 2024 Linderman Award winner is former Trapper cowboy Caleb McMillan after an exceptional season in which he took home at least $2,000 in four events.

"This is really cool," McMillan, 26, told the ProRodeo Sports News. "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."

The Soap Lake, Washington, cowboy finished the season with $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 roughstock.

"It's the work in both ends of the arena," McMillan said. "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." 

Frost — a four-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier — won the last four Linderman Awards in 2019 and 2021-23.

"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 (Washington) 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 finished the season with $49,837 across his four events and missed out on qualifying for his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo presented by Teton Ridge.

However, he will travel to Las Vegas this December to receive the Linderman Award during Round 7 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"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."