Border War Smokers
About Us
History
Border War Smokers was formed in 2009 by two long-time friends - Chris Duff, a University of Missouri - Columbia Graduate, and Rob Keeney, a University of Kansas Graduate. These long time friends had previously helped out other competition teams in the past off an on a few times (Chris - Wind River Smokers, Rob - Brisket's & Gravy). As both were wanting to get more into competition bbq, they decided to start their own team.Planning started in late 2008 / early 2009 and a few events were planned. First and foremost, a team name had to be decided on. Building on the rivalry of the two schools and the history of the two states, the name Border War Smokers was settled on.
2009 was a fun year of thinking we knew what we were doing, finding out we didn't have a clue, learning a lot and having fun the whole time. We cooked primarily on a Good One Rodeo, traveled in a 2004 Ford Escape with a 5 x 10 utility trailer loaded with more stuff than we actually needed, met some great people, went to some fun contests and had fun over the course of the 10 contests we competed in.
Knowing we wanted to improve over 2009, we knew one of the primary areas we needed to improve in was consistency. With how we were cooking, the Good One just wasn't keeping up and giving us a consistent product, so we made the move to two Superior Smoker SS-2's, nicknamed "Little Norm" and "Little Jay." We also increased our schedule to 18 contests, picked up a 1998 Chevy 3500 with a great 8 mpg fuel economy and a used 7 x 16 Doolittle trailer (with A/C, very much a blessing). Again we had a great year, caught up with some friends, saw a big increase in our scores and consistency and had fun the entire time.
2011 is just getting under way and again we're seeing changes. Rob has been fortunate enough to take an early retirement that sees him and his wife having moved to South Carolina where he'll compete occasionally under Border War Smokers but also under Go For Smoke BBQ. If you see Rob around, be sure to stop by and say hi.
2010 Results
2010 was a busy year for Border War Smokers, seeing us compete in 18 events. Given our finish the prior year, we were looking to improve over our 2009 results. We definately saw an improvement with 4 First Place category finishes, 21 category Top 10 finishes, 9 Overall Top 10 finishes and our first Grand Championship at the 19th Annual Boone's Lick Trail BBQ Contest in Columbia, MO. (Newspaper Article) Additionally, we saw a 35th overall in the American Royal Open out of a total of 490 teams and 20th overall in the American Royal Invitational. Given the level of competition at the American Royal, we were thrilled with the final results.2009 Results
With 2009 being our first year competiting seriously, we realized early on we had a lot of learning to do. After planning to do 3 or 4 contests, we quickly raised that 10 after getting bit by the competition bug. It was an interesting year, with a lot of ups and downs. Over the course of the year, we saw 10 Top 10 Category finishes and got our first overall Top 10 Finish.