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Rooster contest at fair crows on after 50 years
By Elise Franco
Canfield
The 50th anniversary of the Canfield Fair’s Rooster Crowing Contest was all about family tradition.
The winner of the 2011 senior division, Bob Samuels, is no stranger to the Monday morning contest.
Samuels, whose winning rooster Gritchy crowed 46 times in 30 minutes, took first place in 1985 when Samuels was 10 years old.
His father, Myron Samuels, took first place in 1963, the second year of the contest.
Bob Samuels said he and other family members have entered roosters in the contest for decades.
“It was cool to win again,” he said. “We all enjoy doing it. ... I’ve placed a few times in between wins, and our family is in the contest every single year.”
Junior division winner Seth Barrett’s rooster Peck crowed 33 times.
Crowing records are held by the 2007 champions, Ethan Samuels in the junior division with 138 crows, and Andrea Walls in the senior division with 123 crows.
Sue Kariher, who has helped keep judging records for about 25 years, said the contest’s tradition has continued so long because of friendly competition and its reputation as a family event.
“Families enter year after year because it’s a fun thing, and everybody has a good time,” she said.
Kariher said each bird has a judge who counts the number of times it crows in a 30-minute period. The bird’s owner can do anything except touch the rooster to make it crow, she said.
“They can feed them, talk to them, crow at them,” she said. “They can do pretty much anything except touch them.”
Myron Samuels said the contest, and the fair, are a part of his family’s history.
“It’s in my blood,” he said. “We’ve been in every contest since it originated in 1962.”
Tom Best, winner of that first contest in 1962, said he thinks the contest has lasted 50 years because of its meaning to the fair.
“It started with the saying, ‘Something to crow about,’” he said. “And it’s just been a thing for the fair ever since.”
Best, whose winning bird in 1962 crowed 72 times, said he enters every year, and he’s happy to see that more and more people have started to participate.
This year, 27 people entered 28 roosters in the senior division, and 21 people entered 23 roosters in the junior division.
Each person is allowed to enter two birds.
“I’m glad to see that it’s grown like this,” Best said.
And though Best’s rooster George didn’t perform as well as he’d hoped Monday morning, he remained in good spirits.
With a smile plastered on his face, he joked, “[George] has laryngitis.”