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The History Behind the Fall Classic
by Katrina Waters
Hotel rooms are booked months — or even a year — in advance. Parents take off from work; kids take off from school to attend. Purebred swine breeders leave the farm and drive hours, even days, just to get there. Hog people anticipate the event for most of the year, and will continue to talk about it long after the last hog sells. Even though it seemed a late-fall type conference would never work, this one proved different.
The Fall Classic, which is held at the Stephens County Fairgrounds, Duncan , Okla. , is like no other event of its kind. It has evolved into a must-see production for purebred swine and show pig enthusiasts alike.
Rick Maloney, Director of Marketing and Development with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture and former Executive Secretary of the Hampshire Swine Registry calls the Fall Classic a “true purebred hog event.”
What led up the Fall Classic?
Long before conferences were held several times per year, most breed associations only had two events a year — one in the summer and one in the winter. The Hampshire Swine Registry, though, believed conferences should be held more often, allowing breeders to exhibit their hogs of all ages. The first “off-season” show was set for June, a show that is now known as the World Pork Expo.
After witnessing the success of this event, Bob Naylor, Executive Secretary of the Hampshire Swine Registry from 1982-85, says the association began looking for another time and location for the next conference. Following extensive discussion among board members, they decided to try a November conference.
The Hampshire Swine Registry moved their conference several times, hoping to find a location that would work. They traveled to Ohio , Georgia and Kansas without much luck. Dan Baker , Seedstock Edge Advertising Coordinator and auctioneer, remembers the lack of interest in an off-season show and sale.
“It was really hard to draw a crowd,” he says.
When the Hampshire association decided to take their event to Duncan , Okla. , in 1983, Baker did not expect this would someday be one of the most successful shows and sales in the purebred swine industry.
“Bob Naylor turned to me before we sold the first hog that night and said, ’Well, tonight may be the last of the November conferences,’” Dan says.
But it certainly was not. Against the odds, the sale was a success. The 29 boars sold for an average of over $1,300 and the overall average price was $925.
Soon after the event, Naylor and the Hampshire board decided to open the event up to other breeds. The Chester White and Yorkshire associations agreed to be a part of it and plans were made for the first multi-breed fall conference. The event, named the Fall Combination Conference, was held in conjunction with a weanling pig sale in Arkansas City , Kan. , in November 1984.
Maloney served as judge for the weanling pig show. The show was only open to male prospects, and less than 150 were entered.
“There were Chester , Hamp, York and crossbred boars and barrows,” Maloney says, “And I remember Jim Rutter had the champion.”
How has the conference changed over the years?
Since the Fall Classic was given its current name in 1986, the show and sale has seen many changes. It has progressed from a three-breed event to a six-breed open show and a weanling pig sale open to all breeds and crosses.
“As we added breeds to the show, it became better,” Naylor says. “It also became more profitable and easier to run with the addition of people involved.”
The location varied as well, moving to Stillwater , Okla. , and Wichita , Kan. Since 1990, however, Duncan , Okla. , has been home. Over the years, the Fall Classic has grown into the nation’s largest weanling pig sale. The sale is so large, in fact, tents are set up to accommodate the overflow from the barn.
Maloney says that the biggest challenge is managing the number of hogs.
“It’s a monster by nature,” he says.
Although space — both in the hog barn and the area hotels — can be a challenge for the NSR staff, Baker says the lack of space could be one of the show’s strengths as well.
“It just wouldn’t have the same charisma in a larger facility or a larger city, like Dallas or Denver ,” he says.
So what makes it “ Duncan , America ”?
The Fall Classic is more than a fall type conference. It is considered one of the premier events to swine enthusiasts from all over the country. Duncan is the place to see the top breeding stock and the top prospect pigs under one roof — well, one roof and a couple of tents.
Maloney says the Fall Classic is unique in that it is totally focused on the shows and sales.
“Everybody is there because of the pigs,” he says. They’re not there for the entertainment, like at a state fair, and they’re not there for a trade show. The event is all about the hogs.”
Just because there are no additional events held in conjunction with the Fall Classic, though, does not mean it is an ordinary hog show.
Baker says, “It’s not just a hog show — it’s an atmosphere of people. It’s people sneaking out the door for some Cajun food, or people looking at pigs on trailers. It’s an event like no other.”
Baker, who has served as an auctioneer at each Fall Classic, goes on to say he has many great memories from Duncan . One memory was selling the record-breaking Yorkshire sale in 2000, when Cobblestone sold for $125,000 and the Yorkshire total was $300,000.
“However, from an auctioneer’s standpoint, Duncan is fun even when I am not selling and can sit back and watch things going on,” Baker says.
The auctions are always a standing room only event, whether the weanling pigs or breeding stock are being sold.
Maloney says it is amazing to open up a pig sale where people are hanging from the rafters.
“In Oklahoma , after selling a $5,000 show pig, we always wondered if we would be able to sell a $10,000 one. Not only did that happen, but in 1998, we sold a weanling pig for $75,000,” Maloney says. “The magnitude of the value of hogs at the Fall Classic has been incredible.”
Naylor says Duncan has successfully proved itself as a good marketing place for swine.
He says, “If you’re going to be in this business, you need to be at Duncan .”
