Steer Wrestler Kyle Callaway Overcomes Brain Cancer to Rodeo Again
Kyle Callaway returned to his Billings, Mont., home with cold medicine one quiet morning in 2022 and became violently ill. His wife Anna prepared him lunch, and as Kyle prepared to sit down, he tipped over, suffering a seizure. Anna, a nurse, called an ambulance and tried to make sense of what she witnessed. Her husband was healthy. They both worked jobs and competed in the RAM Montana Circuit in the PRCA. He had exhibited no symptoms of fatigue or headaches.
A seizure? It did not make sense.
A few days later, Kyle woke up in an MRI tube and thought that “aliens had abducted me.” The steer wrestler, heading down the road for an event, laughed at the memory. Kyle is a headstrong person, tethered by the love of his family. What happened next was the equivalent of a horse kick to the shins.
The medical exams discovered a huge tumor behind Kyle’s right eye. Doctors removed the mass, and Kyle walked out of the hospital the next day to attend a junior rodeo with his daughter. Because of his age at the time (38) and the location of the mass, optimism sprouted.
Then came the diagnosis.
“Grade 3 astrocytoma, a malignant form of brain cancer,” said Anna. Anna broke down when she heard the news.
“That’s when I knew it was bad,” Kyle said.
The rodeo life brings unpredictability. There is no single event or trip that is guaranteed. Kyle, now a 20-year Gold Card member, embraced the competition, the camaraderie, the toughness demanded. But hearing the words cancer cut through the cowboy veneer to a raw vulnerability.
“It was really hard,” Kyle said. “But I had to fight for my wife and my kids (Elsie, 9, Cleah 5, Huckleberry 2). I had to fight hard.”
There is a blueprint that reveals itself when cancer invades the body. Kyle and Anna were prepared to follow the path of radiation and chemotherapy. And there “were a lot of great doctors and nurses along the way,” Anna said.
But one relayed to Kyle that his condition was “pretty bad news,” and insisted, Kyle recalled, that he would never rodeo again. As Kyle’s diagnosis became known, a longtime rodeo friend from college reached out. He told him that his wife traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, when she was given only months to live with breast cancer.
Eager to hear a different perspective, Kyle, his hair in a mohawk and right eye swollen shut, and Anna crossed the border.
“After nothing but bad news, it felt like we have got to go to Mexico, and the doctor told me I was going to beat it. The positive message helped. It was a game-changer,” Kyle said. “That’s when we decided we would do treatment (in Mexico and the states).”
The couple returned home with Anna administering IVs in between the chemo treatments. The kindness of family of friends created hope and an invaluable infrastructure. Kyle’s parents Gregg and Debbie Callaway and his older brother Cody became regulars at the house, tending to the feed lot and cooking meals. Anna’s mother, Norma Haaland watched the kids and her sister Jackie Haaland, also a nurse, stepped in as well.
Of course, the rodeo family stepped up, with breakaway roper Jacey Fortier setting up a silent auction to raise money for medical bills. Rodeo was irrelevant for Kyle at this time. Then, gradually, it wasn’t.
Anna returned to competition and with Kyle slowly regaining his strength, he decided to join her at the Wolf Point (Mont.) Wild Horse Stampede in the summer of 2022.
“That’s just Kyle. I supported him. That whole time he wanted to prove people wrong, mainly the doctors that said he couldn’t do it. That he wouldn’t compete again,” Anna said. “He was told, ‘You can’t ride a horse after brain surgery.’ It’s not like he was going to tip off. He’s a cowboy.”
The conditions for his comeback – relentlessly hot and humid as he recalled – were miserable. Kyle stayed in the air-conditioned rig as Anna saddled his horse. The first run went awful.
“I got dragged around for 19 seconds,” Kyle said. “I figured I was done.”
But after Kyle received a good draw, Anna cajoled him to give it another chance. He posted a time of 5.0 seconds, tying for fourth place in the round. It might as well have been at the National Finals Rodeo given his journey over the previous several months.
“I was sick. I felt horrible. I know I shouldn’t have probably done it,” Kyle said. “But I was proud of placing.”
The thought entered Kyle’s mind that this might be it, his rodeo career switching to supporting his wife in breakaway roping. He watched her at the RAM Montana Circuit Finals Rodeo that season.
“He told me then he didn’t want to come back unless he was competing. That’s when I knew he was going to keep going,” Anna said.
Kyle competed in 2023 and is back on the road this season “with more fire than ever.”
He called the Montana Circuit home in the past, but now competes on the Turquoise Circuit in Arizona. That lunch two years ago seems like a long time ago.
Kyle’s scar from 65 staples in his head, however, provides a reminder of what happened and what he and his family have overcome.
“Rodeo used to be a thing I had to do. This has changed my perspective. We don’t have to do it. We get to do it,” Kyle said. “I feel lucky to pay an entry fee and run a steer. We have always had horses and cows my entire life. Competing is always something I loved to do. It was fun. I am doing it again because of the help of family and friends. Now, I know it is a privilege.”
Courtesy of PRCA