After 17 years, organizer of Nancy’s Pig Races decides to retire from fair
Nancy Herring retiring from pig racing at the Fayette County Fair? That question lingers on the lips of many faithful fairgoers who hate to see the sovereign of the 17-year-old fair tradition Nancy’s Racing Pigs go. For many, including Herring herself, it’s hard to believe it may be true.
Fayette County Fair Board President Bill Jackson, along with the state and Fayette County Fair Queen Kristi Rooker, recently honored Herring for her 50 years of service to the fair. Jackson said Herring will be missed.
“She’s been doing this event at the fair for 17 years, and she has totally volunteered her time. I hope she stays around,” Jackson said.
Herring plans to stick around. After all, what is the Fayette County Fair without the Herrings?
Jackson said people still identify Herring and her late husband, Rolland Herring, who was known as “Mr. Fayette County Fair,” with the annual event.
Rolland Herring was on the fair board for 30 years and served as fair manager for a portion of those years before the position was eliminated.
Nancy and Rolland Herring were involved with the fair since it began more than half a century ago.
Though she said she was going to call it quits a few times before, last year’s 50th anniversary felt like the culmination of a career.
“I thought it was time to give someone else a try at it,” she said. “Every year I say I’m going to quit. I’d like to see young people take over.
“It’s a novelty,” she said about the pig races. “It’s something that’s different. If the people don’t come for the races, they still come to see the pigs.”
And the fair board, knowing Herring could have saved the fair thousands of dollars by volunteering her time so the board wouldn’t have to book a traveling act, agreed the act was too good to pass up this year.
“We had to keep it going,” Jackson said. “It’s a big pull.”
For now, a name change from Nancy’s Racing Pigs won’t be happening.
Herring of Chalk Hill is proud to hand over the reigns to Jill Musko, a science teacher at Bethlehem-Center High School who has worked with and has liked pigs since she was a little girl.
She actually served as a volunteer at the pig races when she was 6 or 7 years old, helping Herring hand flags to cheering children.
As a teen, Musko showed swine and dairy cattle in fair 4-H competitions and has been working with pigs and collecting pig items since she was a little girl.
“I really, really like pigs,” Musko said. “I’ve collected pig things forever.”
She’s also a dedicated attendant of the Fayette County Fair, especially since her father, Jackson, is fair board president.
“I told my dad a couple of years ago, ‘When Nancy retires, I want to be the pig-racing lady,'” Musko said. “It sounds like a lot of fun to me. I like to do silly things like that.”
Herring will be at the fair to guide Musko through her new duties this year, while Herring’s participation in the actual event is expected to dwindle as the 10 long days of the fair wind down.
Herring said she has many memories of her days as a pig racer at the fair.
The pig races and the petting zoo are the only two attractions that have remained constants in the Family Area.
Herring said the pig races have always been free and attracted a crowd.
“They enjoy it and feel they got a value,” she said.
Elephants were the first attraction in what grew to be a large area with multiple acts.
“And it kept growing: the petting zoo, pig races and derby shows, the community exhibits with the flowers and veggies, all are of interest to people,” Herring said.
Now the pig races have a sponsor, Neubauer’s Flowers in Uniontown, and awards “Nancy’s Racing Pigs” shirts as prizes to two lucky children who hold the winning flags.
She laughed when remembering the pigs she started with. She learned quickly to find pigs that are young and will not grow to be over 20 pounds by time the fair rolls around.
She has lived through maintenance changes at the fair as buildings have gone up, been painted and shows expanded.
She recalled when country music stars came to the racing gate after their big shows concluded to ask her about the pigs.
“They wanted to know all about it,” Herring said.
She remembered when Jo Ann Castle, the Lawrence Welk pianist, played at the fair in the highlight of her career.
“They could barely handle the traffic,” Herring said.
She also remembered when a couple of pigs escaped the pen until her father-in-law made the pen escape-proof.
“They’re creatures of habit,” said Herring, who grew up on a Fayette County farm. “They remember the exact spot where to go.”
In the beginning, the starting gate for the first races was just a few boards held together. A family member made a better starting gate that is used today.
She remembered when the weather didn’t always cooperate, a few times blowing over her tent.
“It seems like every year we have a storm that blows my tent away,” Herring said. “If the radio and TV blasts storm warnings every year, the crowds are hesitant to show.”
The worst weather she has seen was hurricanes several years ago, but “we kept going,” she said.
Herring said the fair always pulls together despite some attempted knockdowns.
“You can’t ruin the Fayette County Fair,” she said. “People get together and help each other and away you go.”
She credits her family – her late husband, two sons, Richard and David, and her daughter, Susan – along with the numerous volunteers who helped at the races throughout the years, to making the event the success that it has become.
“A fair is really family involvement,” Herring said. “It’s something that adults and children enjoy.”
The fair is so entrenched in her own family, that, in addition to Nancy and Rolland’s decades of service, her children always plan to be home for that last week of July and the beginning of August to attend the fair.
Rolland and Nancy Herring first became involved in the fair when their church, Bethel Church of the Brethren, had a concession stand on the midway.
Rolland cooked the barbeque beef that many people looked forward to having every year.
“Our church did that up to two or three years ago,” Nancy Herring said. “We’ve been involved in this all along. We’re still involved through all these things. The fair is an exciting place to be.”
Concerning her retirement, she said her family “wouldn’t believe it if I told them.
“It isn’t just something you get up and leave,” she said.
“I enjoy it,” she added. “I like to see the people you work with and you know.”
Herring doesn’t appear to lament her retirement from the races. Rather, she leaves it a mystery as to her return.
“It’s a woman’s right to change her mind,” she said. “We’ll see what next year brings.”
Herring’s proud of the new person in charge, and will pass on the title she has held for the last 17 years.
Longtime pig race announcer Rick Allen, whose amusing broadcasts aired over the Family Area each time before a pig race started, drew in the crowds and got the children cheering. He predicted that no one could take Herring’s pig racing position when she retired.
“I predicted where the pig races were would be hallowed ground and the outcry from the public would be so great that they would erect a statue there in honor of her,” Allen said.
“And, of course if her husband were here, he would have made her do it,” Allen added.
Allen hopes that Herring will still be making cameo appearances at the fair, but with her retirement comes a slight disappointment that has caused him to think about throwing in the towel as well.
“I’m getting older,” he said. “I think you’re really seeing a changing of the guard.”
But Herring doesn’t plan to give up her fair duties too quickly. She intends to help the fair board, she still belongs to the flower committee and she’s still involved with Senior Citizen’s Day at the fair.
“As long as I’m able, I’ll be at the Fayette County Fair,” Herring said. “It’s a place that you get to be, like going to school.”
The pig races that include the famous Pepsi-drinking pig and the stair-climbing pig, will take place in the Family Area with daily shows at 4, 6 and 8 p.m. and an added 2 p.m. show on Saturday and Sunday.
Although the show will go on, for many people and for the pigs – Porky, Miss Piggy, Boss Hog and Arnold Ziffel – the fair will just not be the same without Nancy.
“Nancy’s been so good to the fair. It’s a tradition at the fair, the pig races,” Allen said.