Championship chip-throwing team having a cow

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Apr 12, 2002 by Jan Landon Capital-Journal

Norman Hammond

Listen to an event organizer discuss the team representing Topeka in an international cowchip throwing contest.

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By Jan Landon

The Capital-Journal

The Topeka Cow Chip Team is in deep doo-doo.

An international competition is coming up, and the team's best male hurler is missing.

No kidding. It happens. Well, maybe it happens. Topeka doesn't have a lot of experience in competing in the annual World Championship Cowchip Throw, this year on April 20 in Beaver, Okla. Last October, Topeka had its first-ever cow chip throwing contest at the Kansas Expocentre.

When the activities were done, there was a top team and top male and female winners. But now, it is time for the international competition, and the top male winner can't be found.

His name is Norman Hammond, organizers are almost sure. He lives in Osage County, they think. They have a photograph of him smiling and holding his plaque.

"I would feel terrible," said Kathy Duncan, an organizer of the Topeka event and the trip to Oklahoma. "This man beat all the other people. We had 32 men compete in this division. I would feel terrible if he didn't have the opportunity to compete."

She is the vice president of the Jayhawk Theater board of directors. The local cow chip event was a fund-raiser to help refurbish the theater downtown.

Now as the team makes plans to leave for Beaver, Duncan is desperate to find Hammond.

The team has T-shirts. It will take a van with a banner on its side to Beaver, just across the Oklahoma border from Liberal. In Beaver, the weekend activities will include everything from a parade to barbecues and dances to the event itself.

How big the parade is depends on the farmers in the area, because cow chip teams need to use their flatbeds, Duncan said.

"It's so dry this year, they may have lots of flatbeds," Duncan said.

The secretary at the Beaver County Chamber of Commerce said the cow chip championship and the county fair are the biggest events of the year. Some years, a couple of thousand people show up for the event, Kimalea Moore said.

Moore just moved back to Beaver from Hooker, Okla., after being gone for a few years.

"I moved from Beaver to Hooker and back to Beaver," she explained. "Aren't I something?"

She said she hopes to participate in the cow chip contest at some point.

"I'd like to," Moore said. "I don't have a very good arm. Form is important and practice."

An organization in town collects the chips from area cows. Official chips must be at least 6 inches in diameter, she said.

If the Topeka team can't track down Hammond, then the second- place finisher will step in and assume his duties. That person is Max Ayers, who is also a member of the championship four-person team. Other members include Ryan Duncan, Spencer Duncan and Lonnie Nesvarba.

"Max is a very talented man," Kathy Duncan said. "He has a way with cow pies."

Max Ayers' wife, Vicky, is Topeka's female champion.

"This is a very talented couple," Duncan said.

No chip.