Now a grandfather of two, McCurry reminisced about his days cooking at the Monroe County Fair in the building next to the football field-sized area where the hog wrestling competition took place.
Growing up in Monroe County, he used to attend the fair regularly but has not been in the past couple of years.
“No, I don’t go much anymore,” said McCurry, looking at the filled bleachers. “Lots of families, you could talk about how many people are here. The stands are packed. I just came to see my granddaughters. They came in fourth place at the Owen County fair a week or two ago.”
Their mother leaned over with a look of pride.
“They’re called the ‘Bacon Beauties,’” she said.
The 90-degree heat didn’t stop families from gathering to support their loved ones as they competed in teams of four.
The teams were faced with no easy task.
The intense race to lift a hog onto a nearby tire left many contestants covered in mud and occasionally missing shoes.
Contestants were put in the small, gated mud pit, each team with its own hog. The teams competed one at a time, racing against the clock to corner and capture the frantic animal.
The clock was stopped as soon as the pig was lifted onto the raised tire in the center of the ring and immobilized.
With encouragement from the man on the loud speaker, teammates attempted to corner and carry the hog with a suggested bear hug, so as not to hurt the animal.
“The ‘Baby Back Ribs’ take the lead with 19.04 seconds!” the announcer said.
The participants were given the option of a quick post-wrestle shower this year as an added luxury, according to the fair’s announcer.
Though this three-year-old event is young, and the shower was an unexpected amenity, the hog-wrestling competition has still been the most popular event at the fair for the last two years, according to fair organizers.
Eli Britton’s primary obligation at the fair is to show his pigs and dairy cows, but he has enjoyed the recent addition to the fair’s programming.
“Yeah, it’s great,” he said. “Come out and get your friends together and fight a pig, I guess. They’ve only had it for two years. I’ve done it every year they’ve had it.”
