Omer
Koopman AND the era of CORN HUSKING CONTESTS
It was called the most grueling sport in
the world, and in the mid 1930’s it was also the fastest growing. It drew crowds bigger than any football game,
up to 160,000 rabid fans flocked to the contests from all over the
country. The event was held in a
cornfield, and fans braved rain, snow, mud, and gigantic traffic jams to be
there. It was the national corn husking
contest, and farmers from states all across the Corn Belt came to compete for a
silver cup and as little as $100.00 in prize
money.
It is hard to believe that a competition
carried on in a cornfield in the middle of nowhere could receive much coverage,
but newspaper reporters from all over the country came, and the huskers
received front page coverage. Congressmen
and Governors came to shake hands and witness the spectacle. Movie newsreel crews filmed the contests for
those who could not come, and radio stations broadcast live from the field -
literally. America of the 1920's and
30's was a different place than it is now.
One quarter of all Americans lived on farms. Many more had grown up on
farms, or had family members farming.
The romance and heritage of the land was still in the nation’s heart.
The concept of organized national corn
husking (also called shucking or picking) contests came from Henry A. Wallace
in 1922. Wallace, who was to become Secretary
of Agriculture and Vice President of the United States under President
Roosevelt, believed that these sorts of events would boost rural morale, The
20’s and 30’s were tough years for the farmer.
Prices were depressed and dust storms and drought gnawed at the spirit. The Husking Competitions harked back to a
simpler era, where men more than machines did the work, and your strength and
determination had more to do with success than Markets and bankers.
The first national contest was held in
1924. Attendance rose steadily. In 1930 30,000 witnessed the event. By 1936 140,000 attended the National Corn
Husking Championship competition in Licking, Ohio. Wisconsin farmers came to the contest
late. There had been county husking
competitions in Wisconsin, but no state championship event until 1936. It wasn't until 1937 that Wisconsin counties
held runoff competitions for the right to send huskers to the state competition,
from which the top two place winners would qualify for the national
championship.
The task in these competitions was to walk
alongside a wagon with a “backboard” to stop the flying ears, and for 80
minutes pick ears off the stalks or the ground, husk them, and throw the ears against
the backboard and into the wagon. The
bang, bang, bang of the hard ears hitting the backboard gave fans an idea of
the speed of the competitors. The
average farmer could husk about 300 ears in 80 minutes, but the best of the
competitors at the national contest could shuck as many as 2400 ears in 80
minutes (57 cubic feet). Some attained a
pace of 50 ears a minute for periods.
The four step process was to “pull, break, twist, and throw.” A husking peg or hooked glove was used to
assist in ripping the husks open. The
husker grabbed the ear, hooked it open with astounding speed, rolled off the
husk and silk, broke off the ear from the stalk, and in the same motion tossed
the ear against the backboard without looking.
To maximize his efficiency, the husker had to see the ears paces ahead
and make the shortest and most rapid moves possible to the un-husked ears,
without missing any. Deductions were
made for husks found in the corn wagon and ears missed in the field. This required a level of speed, strength, and
stamina that would have tested the best athletes in any sport. The process often left the huskers hands
bruised and bleeding, even though huskers hands often had calluses as large as
a quarter.
Omer Koopman of rural Patch Grove, and
Lawrence Hauk of Cassville were the best in Grant County, and among the best in
the state. Koopman, referred to in the
press as “one hundred and sixty pounds of greased lightning” won the Wisconsin
Corn husking championship in 1937, and went to the national championship
competition at Marshall Missouri with Dick Post the second place finisher. Koopman was only 19 years old. They finished near the bottom of the pack,
competing with men who had had the advantage of competing against the nations
best for many years. In 1938, Koopman
did not even qualify for the State contest, finishing fifth in the Grant County
contest. Hauk placed second in 1938 and
went to the national championship, also known as the “Battle of the Bangboards”
or the “Nubbin Derby”. Newsreel films of
the 1937 and 1938 national championship contests are available for viewing on
YouTube and Omer Koopman may be seen in the 1937 film competing for the national
crown. Koopman was not finished after
his poor showing in 1938.
Others who competed in Grant County
contests were: Dale Andrew, Clifton;
Ernest Butson, Platteville; Burnell Egan, Cuba City; Earl Fuller, Bagley;
Eugene Hampton, Cassville; Paul Hampton, Bloomington; Alfred Johl, Bloomington;
Elmer Kaiser, Cuba City; John Kohout, Castle Rosk; Ligs Louthain, Potosi;
Eugene VanNatta, Lancaster; Norbert Reiser, Glen Haven; Stanley Walker,
Fennimore; Dallas Wepking, Lancaster; and Orval Wilkinson, Mt. Hope.
The contest winners were looked up to like
any other sports star. The November 3,
1940 Wisconsin State Journal carried the news that Omer C. Koopman of Patch
Grove, the 1940 state corn husking champion, had applied for a marriage license
in Crawford county. He was to marry
Margaret M. O’Shaughnessy of Seneca.
County Clerk Lester Daugherty had leaked the news. They were married on November 6, 1940 and
remained married for the next 69 years, until Omer’s death on March 22, 2010,
at the age of 91. In 1939, the Bartel Rasque farm near Cuba City
hosted the state corn husking contest, and between twenty and twenty-five
thousand spectators came to watch. The
County Agent, W. C. Voskuil organized the committee’s and volunteers needed to
run this massive event. An admission
charge of ten cents a car was charged for the county husking contest. I have not been able to determine the
admission cost for the state contest, but total receipts for the Cuba City event
were listed as $785.00, so many must have snuck in.
In 1940 the State Corn Husking Contest was
held on the O. W. Gutknecht and son farm 11 miles east of Richland Center,
Wisconsin. Omer Koopman was the
winner. In 1941 it was a third
championship for Koopman, and that was the end of it. When the war started in December 1941 the national
competitions were suspended for the duration of the war. When the war was over the competitions didn’t
start again. It wasn’t until 1975 that
another national championship was held, but it was in all ways a weak imitation
of the massive events of the pre-war years.
The last corn husking competition I could
find occurring in Grant County was in 1944.
This was privately sponsored by the Pride Hybrid Seed Company of Glen
Haven and was held on the Carl Forck farm near North Andover. Among a field of entrants from several
states, Lawrence Hauk finished second, and Omer Koopman, who was fighting an
illness, finished fourth.