This year the World’s Championship Duck Calling Contest celebrates the 63^rd year of the event which has grown from a local contest with just a few area hunters to a competition that draws entries from as far away as California.

Prizes for the World’s Champion have grown from a $6.60 hunting coat in 1936 to a total prize package of approximately $15,000.

Even with the tremendous growth of the contest and its related festivities, the primary goal still today is the same as that first contest, a celebration of the waterfowl hunting season. The duck hunting season usually begins in the latter part of the month of November when the fields of rice surrounding Stuttgart have been harvested, giving the ducks plenty of opportunity to feed.

Through the years, related festivities have grown, becoming a part of the contest week. Early organizers of the contest recall that drawing visitors to Stuttgart became a primary reason for developing the competition.

Through the years the crowds have steadily grown and the contest now attracts worldwide publicity and attention. This is quite a contrast from the early years when the crowds at the contest were usually small and made up of local hunters and sportsmen. The American Legion initially sponsored the competition. Thad McCollum, a founder of the contest, was post commander. When the contest began to grow, the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce began sponsoring it and the Chamber continues to sponsor the contest to this day.

As one might have expected, prizes in those early contests were usually inexpensive. For his efforts, Thomas Walsh of Greenville, Mississippi, the first championship duck caller, won a hunting coat. The coat was valued at $6.60.

The several hundred nationwide participants in the competition now vie for a long list of valuable merchandise.

The early contest was held as a part of the Rice Carnival. That celebration was a Stuttgart tradition that eventually fell by the wayside. Three Stuttgart residents, now deceased, Dr. H.V. Glenn, Vern Tindall and McCollum, are credited with suggesting the addition of a duck calling contest to the festival. As a result, that trio is usually recognized as being responsible for founding the contest.

The only rules for the first contests were that contestants would demonstrate four calls – the open water call; the woods call; the mating call; and the scare call. As the contest grew, the rules grew with it. Callers were later required to do three calls, the hail, feed and mating calls. Later, the comeback call was added.

The first national duck calling contest was held on Main Street of downtown Stuttgart on November 24, 1936. There were 17 entries in the contest. There has been marked growth, in terms of both participants and interest.

Related festivities have grown becoming part of the contest week. Reflecting that growth has been the adoption of the name Wings Over The Prairie Festival.

Duck calling divisions have grown in the contest. Duck calling winners are now selected in the following divisions: World’s Champion, Women’s World’s Champion, Junior World’s Champion, Intermediate World’s Champion and Arkansas State Champion. A special Chick & Sophie Major Memorial Contest is also held. The Majors were famous for the Dixie Mallard Duck Calls they made. The scholarship contest is open to any high school senior in the United States.

An added challenge for duck callers is the special Champion of Champion competition.

Every five years, beginning in 1955, the Champion of Champions Duck Calling Contest is held. The winner of that competition is generally considered the best of the best, the Champion of Champions. Those eligible to compete are former World’s Champions.

Past winners include: Art Beauchamp, Flint, MI, 1955; Pat Stephens Johnston, Stuttgart, AR, 1960; John Liston, Knoxville, TN, 1965; Edward Holt, North Little Rock, AR, 1970; Harry Richenback, Stuttgart, AR, 1975; Mike McLemore, Huntington, TN, 1980; David Starks, Stuttgart, AR, 1985; Johnny Mahfouz, Stuttgart, AR, 1990; Buck Gardner of Collierville, TN, 1995: Trey Crawford, TX, 2000.

It is only natural to expect a few ducks to show up and enjoy the contest with all the duck calling going on. Low-flying ducks, passing over Main Street during the contest, have only added to the festive celebration.

Perhaps the most celebrated of those events involved the late actor, Wallace Berry, then a famous movie star, who served as a contest judge. A tremendous flight of ducks approached on the horizon west of town just as the finals of the contest were ending. The flight never deviated from its course, but continued directly over the judge’s stand at a very low altitude. Another featured attraction that has grown out of the week-long celebration is the Queen Mallard Pageant which made its debut in 1957.

That beauty contest has since become the most celebrated and highly sought on the Grand Prairie. The first winner was Pat Peacock, who three years later would win the Champion of Champions calling contest title.

Visitors looking for the calling contests will find the stage located close to the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce building at 6^th and Main Streets.

The stage was moved in 1987 from its traditional location at the corner of Second and Main to provide more room for commercial exhibitors, the five block expanse of Arts and Crafts tents and the ever present carnival.

Another featured celebration is the annual Sportsman’s Dinner and Dance. That event got its start as a Hunter’s Party, held in the old Wagon Wheel above the present Ann’s Pool & Spa store on Main Street after the contest. The annual Duck Gumbo Cookoff and Fun Shoot are other popular events.

The addition of national corporate sponsors in 1987 enhanced the national renown of the Wings Over The Prairie Festival. It is now touted by several travel publications as one of the best parties in the nation. But those people who have watched the event grow in national recognition – as well as international fame – still recall the purpose every time a flight of ducks wing their way overhead.