PRCA Creates Award to Honor Pickup Men

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has created an annual award to honor the best of the sport’s pickup men, those noble knights of the arena who pluck cowboys from bucking horses and keep them safe.

All pickup men who have worked enough rodeos to qualify for selection to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and all bareback and saddle bronc riders can participate in the initial balloting, and the top five nominees will be voted on by the full PRCA membership.

The award will be presented during the annual PRCA Awards Banquet at the South Point Hotel, Spa & Casino in Las Vegas this December, on the eve of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The winner will receive a buckle and a hand-tooled saddle.

Funding for the PRCA Pickup Man of the Year award has been provided by an anonymous benefactor, who wants only to be known as “a friend of rodeo.”

“I think it’s great that pickup men as an entity are getting this recognition,” said Josh Edwards, who shared pickup duties with Chase Cervi at the 2014 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. “The award is meant to showcase some of the elite guys, to put light on their abilities as stockmen and as horsemen.

“This puts things at a new level and honors a degree of skill that should be noticed and acknowledged.”

Courtesy of PRCA