ProRodeo Sports News - May 29, 2020

CATCHING UP WITH ... LEE AKIN Akin’s ACES

Bull rider overcomes traumatic brain injury BY MATT NABER T he odds of overcoming a traumatic brain injury are slim enough. Add to those odds being the child of drug addicts in Long Island, N.Y., and the chances of competing three times at the National Finals Rodeo in bull riding become nearly astronomical. Those were the cards Lee Akin was dealt in life. But he took his hand and ran with it. The native New Yorker made it out of Long Island to reach the NFR in 1997, 2000 and 2001, winning nearly half a million dollars throughout his ProRodeo career. In some ways, Lady Luck was on the cowboy’s side, as he was adopted and began competing in rodeo as a kid. “About as far away from rodeo as one can get,” Akin said about his 1974 birthplace. “My biological parents were drug addicts, and I

Photo courtesy Lee Akin Bull rider Lee Akin overcame a traumatic brain injury in 2007 and now works on ranches in Idaho.

Akin still holds a pair of records at the Caldwell (Idaho) Night Rodeo, setting them in 2001 with a 94-point ride and a two-head score of 183 points. During that time, he also earned his biology degree from Southwestern Oklahoma State University inWeatherford. “Obtaining my college degree is one of my biggest accomplishments,” Akin said. In 1996, Akin started traveling with Chris Littlejohn, a four-time NFR bull rider (1994-97). “He dreamed about it since he was a kid, set his goals to do it and then followed those goals,” Littlejohn said. “I was in the same boat. I grew up in a poor family that didn’t rodeo, and I saw it as something I’d like to do. It’s all

spent the majority of my childhood years in the foster care system, bouncing from home to home. I became involved in rodeo after I was adopted, and things really took off in my high school rodeo career. I rode a few broncs over the years, but my passion was always bull riding.” ROUGH RIDER From 1995 through 2007 Akin won nearly $500,000, thanks in part to qualifying for those three NFRs. “I just always loved the sport,” Akin said. “There’s nothing like the feeling of covering a rank bull. It’s even better when you have the high-point ride.”

ProRodeo Sports News 5/29/2020

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