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Mike

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Bum Steer

Posted Monday, Mar. 13, 1972
The overall grand champion of this year's prestigious National Western Stock Show in Denver was a gleaming 1,200-lb. Aberdeen Angus steer named Big Mac. His name alone was enough to attract the owners of a group of McDonald's hamburger franchises around Denver. They paid $14,250 for the black steer, planning to use him to promote the McDonald's superburger also known as Big Mac.

It is now a local joke among Denver cattlemen that the steer should have been named after a rival chain's hamburger, the Whopper. It seems that Big Mac may actually be a white Charolais steer named Jeep. It also appears that he was dyed black for the show, for which the Charolais breed is not eligible, and entered as an Angus. A previous owner of the animal, which was reported to have died last November of hardware sickness (from eating metal, like barbed wire), spotted Big Mac at the show and declared him "the spitting image of Jeep, except that he's black instead of white."

With a protest lodged, the $200 prize money was withheld, and the $14,250 sale was halted. For the moment Big Mac—or Jeep, or whatever it is—was settled on a suburban farm, turning whiter and whiter by the day.

From the Mar. 13, 1972 issue of TIME magazine
*********************************************************
If anyone has a picture of Big Mac please PM me. Black or White it doesn't matter. :lol:
 
Was this the "shoe polish" steer? I think I remember something about it but I was pretty young in '72.......How old were you Mike? :D
To be fair, the Angus breed of 2006 has come a long way from what it was in '72, in my opinion.
My hat is off to the Angus people who have done such a great job of promoting their cattle and the "brand recognition" associated with "angus".
I still like my Charolais though! :wink:
 
Mike said:
Bum Steer

Posted Monday, Mar. 13, 1972
The overall grand champion of this year's prestigious National Western Stock Show in Denver was a gleaming 1,200-lb. Aberdeen Angus steer named Big Mac. His name alone was enough to attract the owners of a group of McDonald's hamburger franchises around Denver. They paid $14,250 for the black steer, planning to use him to promote the McDonald's superburger also known as Big Mac.

It is now a local joke among Denver cattlemen that the steer should have been named after a rival chain's hamburger, the Whopper. It seems that Big Mac may actually be a white Charolais steer named Jeep. It also appears that he was dyed black for the show, for which the Charolais breed is not eligible, and entered as an Angus. A previous owner of the animal, which was reported to have died last November of hardware sickness (from eating metal, like barbed wire), spotted Big Mac at the show and declared him "the spitting image of Jeep, except that he's black instead of white."

With a protest lodged, the $200 prize money was withheld, and the $14,250 sale was halted. For the moment Big Mac—or Jeep, or whatever it is—was settled on a suburban farm, turning whiter and whiter by the day.

From the Mar. 13, 1972 issue of TIME magazine
*********************************************************
If anyone has a picture of Big Mac please PM me. Black or White it doesn't matter. :lol:
Click to expand...

Bet people were really talking about the best dang Angus they ever saw! :lol:
 
LOL Denny, I dont remember it either, I was 6 years old...and more interested in feedin a bottle baby than show steers. Heck.....to this day I'd still take a bottle baby over a show steer :wink:
 
Bum Steer or Real Champ?
One evening during the 1972 Stock
Show, Jack Orr was finishing up chores
down in the yards when his son and a
friend came rushing into the pen. "Jeep's
up there on the Hill!" they blurted
breathlessly. The steer with the funny
nickname had started life on the Skylark
Ranch at Kremmling, Colorado, where
one of the boys had prepared him for a
show and sale in Kansas. He had been a
creamy white Charolais back then, but
now he was jet black and entered as an
Angus in the Junior Show. So began a
melodrama that still evokes smirks and
discomfort. "No story created more
publicity in National Western history,"
wrote former General Manager Willard
Simms, but it's a story the Stock Show
would sooner forget.
"They took me up there and except for
being black, it sure as heck looked like
Jeep," Orr recalls. If it was Jeep, this was a
bombshell. Only steers sired by an Angus
bull were eligible to enter the Angus
division and Jeep, if that's who he was, had
a Charolais poppa and momma. A dye job
could be the only explanation for his
present hue. Soon, the barn talk was all
about the steer and a protest challenging his
right to compete was filed with Stock Show
brass. When the owner tendered
documents showing an Angus sire, the steer
was allowed to stay in the competition. He
conceded to using black dye to touch up a
few light spots but this was a common
practice and not against the rules.
John Grisham might have scripted
what happened next. The Angus judge,
unaware of the hubbub behind the

8 • 2 0 0 5 N a t i o n a l We s t e r n S t o c k S h o w
scenes, picked the animal over 86 other
entries as the division champion. Two
days later, a second judge chose him over
Hereford and Shorthorn winners to
become the Junior Show's grand
champion steer, one of the highest
honors at the Stock Show. "He was a
good animal, no doubt about it," says
Orr. The award put the critter in the
headlines and when McDonald's laid
down a record $14,250 at the Junior
Livestock Auction and dubbed him "Big
Mac," he was a celebrity.
Ordinarily, their appearance at the
auction is the last curtain call for Junior
Show champions, but Big Mac got a
reprieve. Documents had turned up
purporting to prove his Charolais ancestry
and he was sequestered before he could
be slaughtered. Blood samples were
drawn to probe his links to the claimed
Charolais and Angus sires. Branding irons
from the Skylark Ranch were brought in.
A vet had a gander up the champion's
nostrils for signs that pink membranes
had been dyed black. "As far up as we
could see, he was black," the vet said.
Investigators flew to Kansas to interview
the owners and 4-H officials. A brand
inspector clipped hair and photographed
brands from other Skylark cattle to
compare with the marks on Big Mac.
Separate labs turned up nary a trace of
Angus blood in Big Mac's veins. He was,
they said, descended from a proud
Charolais lineage. The brand inspector
concluded "beyond a doubt" that Skylark
irons had branded him. The owner's
account of the animal's provenance began
to unravel and the steer started showing
white around his eyes as the hair grew out.
The vet peered up his nostrils again, stood
back with a surprised look and proclaimed,
"He's just as pink as he can be."
Then the lid blew off the unfolding
drama. "It hit page one of the Post noon
edition," Simms would later write, "and
then about every newspaper, TV and
radio station in the country, and the AP
and UPI wire services." To the
accompaniment of media guffaws, Simms
called in Big Mac's ribbons and awarded
them to the reserve grand champion.
McDonald's asked for a refund.
Months passed and the storm
subsided while Big Mac grew out a
creamy white coat in pens of the
Colorado Brand Board, which held him
as an unclaimed stray. He had
contentedly munched his way through
600 pounds of hay and 300 pounds of
cracked corn by August when Iowa
newspaperman Eddie Collins bought
him at auction– but not to turn him
into patties. "Practically everybody in
the United States and a lot of Europe
had heard about Big Mac," laughs Jack
Orr. That fall he checked into
Washington, D.C.'s, Mayflower Hotel to
help stockmen dramatize low cattle
prices. In a Cadillac and horse trailer
Collins and Big Mac toured the country,
appearing at fairs and 4-H clubs to
illustrate what happens when
competition goes too far. The storied
steer, a champion at heart, lived to a
ripe old age and might have said that
things turned out just fine.

End of story. :wink:
 
Mike....

In a "Big Mac" collection of stuff at my folks we not only have a pic of "Big Mac" but also a whole host of articles on him and the rats who showed him.

My Grandpa loved showing cattle (as does my Mom, but Dad stifles this love :lol: ) and he kept everything about Big Mac. I won't get home for sometime, and Mom and Dad are flying north for Christmas, but when I get it you're than welcome to go through it in one of your stops at the LT.

Chilly cheers!

TTB :wink:
 
Turkey Track Bar said:
Mike....

In a "Big Mac" collection of stuff at my folks we not only have a pic of "Big Mac" but also a whole host of articles on him and the rats who showed him.

My Grandpa loved showing cattle (as does my Mom, but Dad stifles this love :lol: ) and he kept everything about Big Mac. I won't get home for sometime, and Mom and Dad are flying north for Christmas, but when I get it you're than welcome to go through it in one of your stops at the LT.

Chilly cheers!

TTB :wink:
Click to expand...

Can you scan me copy of the pictures?

I will certainly look forward to looking at the stuff!

Katrina, yes.


What intrigues me so much about this is that I was just starting to breed some cows to Chars back in 1972. A good friend and neighbor who was President of the Char Association and was in to the Char business stopped by my house on the way back from Denver and this show.

He told me about seeing Big Mac and that he didn't look anything like an Angus. In fact, he told me the steer looked like a Black Charolais.

At the time I laughed it off.

A few weeks later when the story broke, he and I wondered how so many cattlemen and judges had been fooled by the whole ordeal.

Mr. Pate had known it right off. :???:
 
National Western history / past winners web page link

http://www.nationalwestern.com/nwss/home/index.asp?rpg=/nwss/history/historic/bigmac.asp
 
eldiente said:
National Western history / past winners web page link

http://www.nationalwestern.com/nwss/home/index.asp?rpg=/nwss/history/historic/bigmac.asp
Click to expand...

Thanks. I have that one but I can't really see the calf that well in the picture. Too dang dark. Thanks again.
 

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