Williams came to his first in 1967, joining the Blue Shirts just a few years later. “And I just couldn’t stop coming back,” he said. Gerken, who leads the track crew in preparing the dirt ahead of the pull, and maintaining it during the event, joined in 1970. There are multiple Blue Shirts who have been there since the beginning, like Eldor Gerken and Roger Williams. Membership in the club means pride in the pull, and some will drive almost an hour to attend the weekly meetings and camp out for the week surrounding the event. Now, with over 50 years under their belt, the blue shirts they wear are more than just apparel. The story behind the color is a simple one: a member’s wife was looking for shirts for her husband and some other members to wear, and she liked some blue shirts she saw, Erford said. After rapid growth in membership, they became the NWOTPA in 1964, and donned their blue shirts soon after. The club was formed in the spring of 1962 with 20 members as the Wood County Tractor Pullers. “They love the pull so much they enjoy the crazy workdays as much as anyone would enjoy a day at the beach.” From left, Tyler Shaner, Larry Shaner Jr., and Nolan Shaner have a family tradition of volunteering as Blue Shirts The legacy of the shirt “For a lot of members, this is actually their vacation,” Schultz said, himself included. Then, they go back their campsites to get a precious few hours of sleep before they start again the next day. The rest of the Blue Shirts are up and working soon after, and workdays don’t end until well after midnight. The day begins for the directors around 4:30 a.m. The days of the pull itself are the most work intensive. Their work continues year-round, and planning for next year’s tractor pull begins about 18 months in advance, Schultz said. If we let a hundred bumps in the road stop us, it wouldn’t happen either,” Erford said. “If we let one bump in the road put us off track, this would never happen. Too much rain over-moistening the dirt track, rigs parking an inch outside of their designated space offsetting a whole row, heavy machinery breaking down, and members calling in sick are just some of the problems the Blue Shirts can encounter daily.īut they wouldn’t be able to pull it off if they weren’t problem solvers, Schultz said.
Sometimes I just want to stop and say ‘hi.’ But my job involves me going back and forth around these grounds every day, doing meetings, making sure it’s running as smooth as it can,” Erford said. “Usually I’ll just stop and ask a crew how they’re doing, if they need anything. In a typical drive across the grounds, President Mike Erford said he’ll make “anywhere from 10 to 20 stops.” Eldor Gerken has been a Blue Shirt for 50 years. If they run into unexpected problems - which happens quite often - the directors are there to help. We have people with decades of knowledge doing this,” Schultz said. But with the litany of tasks across Pulltown’s more than 6,000 square feet, “we have to work like clockwork.” Many of them are farmers, mechanics, construction workers, or former pullers.Įach crew has a leader who reports their progress to the board of directors. Most members have experience in fields that assist them in their duties. “It takes a ton of collaboration and trust to do what we do.” “We have crews for everything you could think of,” NWOTPA Secretary Dave Schultz said. They are governed by nine directors, who in turn oversee about the dozens of crews who handle various tasks, from merchandising to planning parking space for tractors to getting the trophies to their respective winners. These 225 people are members of the Northwestern Ohio Tractor Pullers Association - more commonly known as Blue Shirts. They love the machinery powering the massive rigs.
Bowling green tractor pulls 2021 full#
More than 200 men and women, many of whom have full time jobs, volunteer year-round to put on the world’s largest tractor pull.
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