BARBECUE REPUBLIC

Cooking BBQ for 26 years at Memphis in May

Dozens of whole pigs, untold cases of beer, late-night dance parties, stroller nights, trophies, a "gravity pig" (more on that later) and hilarious Miss Piggy Idol skits. Members of Barbecue Republic have no shortage of memories of fun times shared. For 26 years, this band of friends has gathered during the third week in May to compete in the Memphis in May World Championship Cooking Contest Whole Hog category. Of the 223 teams that competed in 2019, only 35 have participated for more than 25 years.

Barbecue Republic came together in 1993, the year after most of the founding members had just graduated from college.

“We were all sitting around Newby’s one night, and someone said, ‘Let’s start a barbecue team,’” Raymond Williams said. He’s not sure exactly who it was, but figures it was most likely Tiger Bryant or Todd Adams.

Gordon Stark was one of the founding members and has served as team president in the past.

“We are an amalgam of high school friends,” he said. “We recognized Memphis in May as a super fun event to get involved in. We had all been going to the event since high school. After college, we said to ourselves, ‘We can do this.’”

“You know we started our team to have fun, winning was secondary,” added Van Raby, another founding team member. “At one point, I would have said we were top five in the party category.”

But it has been more than just a party for these barbecue team members.

Both Raby and Williams met their wives at their Barbecue Republic tent. As the once 20-something bachelors married and started their families, Wednesday night became known as “Stroller Night,” when all the kids would come to the river for a night of barbecue family-friendly fun. Now, many of the members have high schoolers and college-age kids who come and help (or more accurately hang out with their friends) throughout the weekend.

The party and a few of the teammates may have changed over the years, but the camaraderie and fun have not waned a bit.

Humble beginnings

When the team started, their knowledge of barbecue was pretty slim.

“I thought barbecuing was slathering KC Masterpiece on chicken and throwing it on the grill,” Stark joked.

Luckily for the future of the team, the founding members all quickly learned their way around a grill. Williams, Stark, Raby and current team president Bryan Hallum each admitted that after 26 years they have finally mastered how to barbecue everything from a simple piece of chicken to a 150-pound pig.

When asked why they chose to enter what many consider the hardest category in the cooking contest, Raby said, “Why would you do anything else? It’s so impressive to cook a whole hog.”

“Back when we started in the 1990s, it used to be more simple,” Raby said. “Now the cooking competition is a whole different game with folks like Big Bob Gibson who have a restaurant and compete year-round.”

You win some …

It’s not been all fun and games in the Barbecue Republic booth each year. This team honed its pitmaster skills to win some awards, placing in the top 10 in several categories.

In the Whole Hog category, they placed sixth in 1996, 10th in 2002, fifth in 2010 and ninth in 2016.

In 1997, Barbecue Republic placed