Phil Lyne

World Champion Bull Rider, Calf & Steer Roper, and Actor
Movie: The Great American Cowboy
1947-Living

Phil Lyne was born in San Antonio, Texas on January 18, 1947.  Stories circulating around the rodeo world credit the youthful Phil Lyne with performances that would be dismissed as legendary if living witnesses did not exist by the hundreds.  The calf roper is almost entirely dependent on his horse.  A well-trained horse is 90 percent of the act and the champion calf roper normally has won the event months earlier in long hours of patient work with his horse.

          Not so with Phil Lyne.  He didn't own a roping horse.  In one year of his brief career, he rode ninety-one horses in a roping competition.  Witnesses swear that once when he dashed onto the rodeo grounds just as they announced his name, he asked a passing cowboy if he could borrow his horse, and roped his calf in a stunning 10.5 seconds, near a world record.  This slow-talking cowboy traveled from rodeo to rodeo in an old station wagon and two-horse trailer.

          In 1969 Phil won PRCA Resistol Rookie of the Year, in 1972 the World All-Around Calf Roping Championship, and in 1970, ‘71, ‘72, and ‘76 he was the recipient of The Bill Linderman Award.  In 1971 Phil stepped up to claim the All-Around title during his good friend Larry Mahan's absence.  In 1973 Phil co-starred with Mahan in "The Great American Cowboy", a Disney documentary featuring the rivalry of rodeo.  Phil has the distinction of being the first cowboy to win the National Finals Rodeo average titles in three events: Bull Riding, Calf Roping and Steer Roping.

          Phil is married to Sarah and they have two daughters, Amanda and Samantha.  Phil retired at the age of 27 to spend more time with his family and operate his cattle business.