DANVILLE — Yes, Ohio Lt. Gov. and famed former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel said he tried one of Knox County’s finest delicacies at the 83rd Danville Lions Club Raccoon Dinner on Monday night.
Later, the Lt. Gov. delivered a keynote speech in Danville High School’s auditorium.
Approximately 100 volunteers helped hunt, freeze, clean, cook and serve about 200 raccoons at the unique event. Around 600 people joined Tressel and helped chow down on 600 pounds of raccoon meat.
Net proceeds from the night will fund three $1,000 scholarships for graduating Danville High School students later this year.
What started as a men’s event 83 years ago has now turned into a full-blown family dinner that draws people from around the U.S.
Danville Lions Club Treasurer Pat Crow awards a pin to the person who travelled the farthest each year. This year, the farthest traveler was a young man from Georgia.
Crow said the bandit-masked-mammal-meal has drawn people from Russia, Egypt and Alaska in previous years.
“It’s really crazy. It’s wonderful, but it puts Danville on the map,” Crow said.
“What a historic place to have a great community event,” Tressel said. “There’s no place like home, no place like Ohio.”
From tree to roaster
A local group of men either trap or hunt the raccoons during a season that’s similar in length to rabbit season, Crow said.
After the hunters catch their game, which takes place in the woods — not city streets, the properly skinned and dressed animals are frozen until the Saturday before the big dinner.
“We get them out the Saturday before, two days before, thaw them out for a slow thaw,” Crow said.
“Then on Sunday, about 25 volunteers, clean the raccoon. Without getting too gritty about it, it’s very fatty. So, we clean as much of that off as we can and remove anything that you wouldn’t want to eat.”
The meat is then soaked in salt water overnight.
“Then on Monday morning, the morning of the dinner, volunteers meet here [at St. Luke’s Community Center] and fry it, bread it and then they roast it in one of those 18-quart roasters for about four hours,” Crow said.
The raccoon ringleader said each roaster can hold about 24 to 25 pounds at a time.
After the cooking process, the raccoon is served with mashed potatoes, cornbread, vegetable-slaw and coffee or milk.
For those not brave enough to give the raccoon a try have ham as an option.
The strength of Danville’s community
“It’s like a homecoming,” Crow said.
Whether some of the dinner-goers still live in Danville or lived in Danville, they all come back to this dinner year after year.
Many folks bring new generations of their family members with them to keep the tradition alive.
“We had four generations at the cleaning [on Sunday],” Crow said. “It was former Lions Club President Ken Miller, his son, his grandson and his great granddaughter.”
“It’s just a family thing. There are people I see once a year. They come here and they come and help at some point during the process.”
Just a few days off of Winter Storm Fern, Crow said rescheduling wasn’t even a thought.
“A number of years ago, we had one of those flipping snow events where we got all ready for it, and on Sunday night we said, ‘Oh, crap. It’s going to snow,'” Crow said.
“It snowed like five inches on Monday — we still had 400 people show up in their pickup trucks.”
What it meant to have Tressel in town
Danville’s Raccoon Dinner is no stranger to well-known Ohioans popping by to try the furry critter.
The dinner has drawn the likes of former Ohio Gov. Jim Rhodes in the ’70s and former Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes in the early ’80s.
Yet, Crow said having Tressel come was “huge.”
“[Tressel’s appearance] is of the same caliber [as Rhodes and Hayes],” he said.
The Lt. Gov. shared a story about how Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine asked him to take over the Lieutenant Governor role after John Husted moved up to the U.S. Senate.
Additionally, Tressel highlighted much of the work he and DeWine have done so far, specifically, the Team Tressel Fitness Challenge.
During one of Tressel’s many trips to elementary and middle schools around Ohio this past fall, he stopped at Wiggin Street Elementary in Gambier for a pep rally and exercise session.
The Team Tressel Fitness Challenge just started Round Two on Monday, he noted.
Before talking about his coaching days, fitness endeavors, workforce needs and the importance of community, Tressel shared one important message.
“The governor wants every single Ohioan to have a chance to reach their God-given potential,” he said.
“He cares that everyone gets a chance, and everyone gets an opportunity. Yeah, everyone has to do their part of it. They have to have the willingness and all the rest.”
“But, he wants everyone to have that opportunity to reach their God-given potential.”
