The Tale of Two Terlinguas

In addition to the rivalry between CASI and ICS, there has been a further dispute between CASI and some of its original members. When H. Allen Smith said that "the chief ingredients of all chili are fiery envy, scalding jealousy, scorching contempt, and sizzling scorn," he summed up the most overcooked and underhanded argument between the two "Original Terlingua Chili Championships." Two original cookoffs you say? How could that be? Well, here's the lowdown on the lore, litigation and love lost at Texas ' most famous cookoff.

It all started out so innocently. Let's flashback to the Baker Hotel in Dallas in 1967. Dallas Morning News columnist Frank X. Tolbert and friends are musing over an article in Holiday magazine titled, "Nobody Knows More About Chili Than I Do," written by New York humorist H. Allen Smith. While feasting on bowls of Wick Fowler's famous red chili, Tolbert, who also authored the Texas sacred scripture, A Bowl Of Red , thinks up the perfect scheme to let that New Yorker find out who really knows about chili: a chili cookoff challenge featuring Wick Fowler's chili versus H. Allen Smith's red.

The Great Chili Confrontation, as it was to become known, was scheduled to happen in the Texas ghost town of Terlingua. After much hype, the first Terlingua cookoff attracted more than 1,000 people, most who indulged in the shameless (and fun) debauchery that still exists to this day. Fowler and Smith cooked their chili, but there was no winner named. The contest was called off after a tie-breaking judge supposedly gagged on a spoonful of that New York chili. But great fun was still had by all, and they resolved to do it again.

The contest was almost too successful. After an article on the challenge appeared in Sports Illustrated , a national chili cooking craze ensued, and The Goat Gap Gazette was born. There was enough Terlingua and chili to go around for everyone--until the early '80s, that is. The story goes that in 1982, Tolbert came to the cookoff with two European friends and insisted that they should be allowed to cook. Many of the other cooks protested because they had had to earn enough points to compete in what was then called the World Championship by qualifying at other cookoffs, and the foreign invaders had not qualified. The protesting cooks' rationale was that everyone should observe the same rules and regulations.

Tolbert found the protestations ridiculous and set up a separate cookoff with his own loyal faction at Terlingua the following year. It was nicknamed the "Behind the Store" cookoff, because it was held behind Arturo White's store, where it still exists to this day, known more formally as the vocal chord-gagging "Original Viva Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert--Wick Fowler Memorial Championship Chili Cookoff."

Just as tempers on both sides were reaching a boiling point, the groups became completely divided after a run of deceptions, tricks, and other assorted nastiness. In 1983, the two warring cookoffs were held on the same day. Tolbert then began the first litigation with a petition for trademark status of the term "Chili Appreciation Society" for his cookoff. By 1984, when the trademark was issued, Frank Tolbert had died.

Each year the flames of controversy between the cookoffs grew. In 1988, a lawsuit was filed on behalf of the protesting cooks group, now known as CASI Inc., against the Fowler cookoff, and the use of the tagline "Chili Appreciation Society International."

The U.S. federal judge who was assigned the case urged the two groups to work together to find an equitable solution, but there was no such luck. Judge Lucius Bunton of the Twelvth Western District ruled that the Tolbert faction had no claim to the trademark and gave it instead to CASI, Inc. However, the judge did refuse to rule whether which group had the right to call themselves the "Original" Terlingua cookoff. With $40,000 in legal fees apiece, both groups simply went away aggravated, vowing to cook at their own "original" Terlingua cookoff.

Today, there are still two rival cookoffs in Terlingua. The CASI cookoff is called "CASI Terlingua International Chili Championship (TICC) ," and the Behind the Store cookoff is dubbed "The Original Viva Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert--Wick Fowler Memorial Championship Chili Cookoff."

Read about TICC, "The Big Show"