FAYETTEVILLE -- If you have an event in Fayetteville, and the Arkansas Razorbacks beg you to change its date to avoid conflicting with them, then you've got SOME event.
The 30th annual Chile Pepper Festival running this morning into the afternoon at the University of Arkansas' Agri Park is SOME event.
It's a daylong event of cross country races but truly a festival of food and fellowship involving runners and fans. Fans not just of the Razorbacks and competing collegians, but especially parents, fans and friends of high school and junior high kids and younger, and runners of various age groups in the community and open division races.
Conceived by Fayetteville restaurateur/track enthusiast Joe Fennel, the event's origins used the success of since retired 42-times national champion cross country and track coach John McDonnell's Razorbacks men to start a festival whose entry fees and gifts are donated to area high school cross country programs.
For its 29 years, Chile Pepper reports it has distributed $575,000 to area high school and junior high programs.
It has mushroomed during Fennel's years chairing the Chile Pepper on through his successors, most recently Jay Lewis, and long become an area economic boon for restaurants and hotels, Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce president Steve Clark has said.
Coach Chris Bucknam's reigning SEC champion Razorbacks men run at 9:30 a.m. and Coach Lance Harter's reigning SEC champion Razorbacks women run at 10:20 a.m.
They are part of the show but nowhere near the whole show.
"There are 6,200 entrants for high schools, college and community races," Harter said. 'We have 55 teams in the women's and 472 entries."
Ditto or thereabouts for the collegiate men.
So while the collegians draw a lot, the other races attract even more.
Fact is, Bucknam and Harter both say admiring the community involvement, their Razorbacks need this meet far more than this meet needs them.
That point was driven home several years back.
With both teams nearly always contending among the top 10 or better nationally, one year Harter and the next year Bucknam put B-teams running Chile Pepper and ran their best at the Pre-National race previewing the course NCAA Cross Country Championships course for November.
Harter had to answer to Bev Lewis, the women's athletic director who hired him while his cross country coaching predecessor.
"That one year," Harter said, "Bev said, 'So you chose to go to Pre-Nats. I didn't realize you were going to take your entire A-team.' She made it quite clear to run at Chile Pepper."
Harter and Bucknam begged the Chile Pepper board to change their race date. The board obliged making all happy ever after.
Both coaches reel off a litany of who's who among Razorbacks they first saw running for high schools and junior colleges at Chile Pepper. Their runners relish running before the customarily by far biggest crowd of the season.
"It has a championship energy level in September you don't find anywhere else," Bucknam said.
Sports on 09/22/2018