Chambers,Nebraska Cowboy Receives Record 9th Linderman Award

Twenty years ago, a 21-year-old Chambers, Nebraska cowboy won his first Linderman Award. Twenty years later, he is now accepting his ninth Linderman Award following in the footsteps of his father, Chip, who won the award four times.

Kyle Whitaker of Chambers is in the image of his father and also Bill Linderman, whom the award was named after. Linderman was a ProRodeo Hall of Fame cowboy.

The Linderman Award is bestowed upon select cowboys that won at least $1,000 in a minimum of three events, where two of the three must include one roughstock and one timed event.

“Its something I’ve wanted to win ever since I was a kid going to rodeos with my dad,” Whitaker said. “A lot of people don’t really know about it. I know the history of the award and respect it a lot.”

Whitaker, at the age of 41, says its a matter of simply giving what he has.

He has earned majority of his prize money in steer wrestling, collecting $51,233. He has collected $9,666 in tie-down roping and $3,740 in saddle bronc riding.

“It’s something I have always dreamed of…It means a heck of a lot more now than it did when I was a 21-year-old kid,” Whitaker said.

The first year Whitaker won the Linderman award, he had no competition and nobody had won it the year before.