It was a day for past champions to dominate when 39 teams hit the street on September 26 for the 2009 Big Brown Truck Pull presented by ResCare at Fourth Street Live! With only one exception, all of the 2008 champions repeated their feats, and the Men's Division champion once again made their mark in dramatic fashion.
The Men's Division also produced one of the most interesting competitions of the day. Jefferson County Sheriff's FOP Lodge 25 posted a fast time as the second Men's team in the event, pulling the truck the 12 feet in just 3.53 seconds. Two teams later, Cole's Crew/Justin Graphics made a solid run at that mark, missing taking the lead by just .07 seconds. The Sheriffs' time stood until the Sullivan Cozart, Inc. Super Constructors took the rope. Sporting a Superman-looking logo on their Truck Pull T-shirts, the Super Constructors took the lead by .02 seconds with a time of 3.51. Pulling with three women on their 15-person team (event rules require 6 women for a Co-Ed team), the Super Constructors became the first mixed team ever to lead the Men's Division. The Super Constructors' time stood until another Law Enforcement team pulled hard to reclaim the lead. With many members arriving right after their shifts at work ended, the Louisville Metro Corrections FOP Lodge 77 made a tremendous pull of 3.47 seconds to move into the top spot; however, the five-time Division defending champions had not yet pulled. And when the TONKA Tuggers (formerly the UPS RAIDers) got their turn in the last pull of the day, they did exactly what they had done in each of the previous five years — pulled right into another title slot. This time the Tuggers won with a time of 3.33 seconds.
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The winning pull in the Co-Ed Division
by two-time champion NPAS |
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In the Co-Ed Division, NPAS, which won on a second pull time tiebreaker in 2008, didn't need the same kind of dramatics. Their time of 3.46 seconds, which came in the first third of the day, led ALL teams until the TONKA Tuggers had their pull. The Citi Cards II team that had tied with NPAS in 2008 gave a great effort, but fell .05 seconds short with a time of 3.51 seconds.
Women's Division defending champ the UPS Fly Girlz won their second consecutive title in a time of 4.35 seconds.
It wasn't just the Division champions who had their sites set on repeating. Both the Top Fundraising Team and Top Individual Fundraiser obviously worked hard to reclaim their trophies as well. Presenting sponsor ResCare easily won as the Top Fundraising Team once again, raising a total of $11,854. More than $3,000 of that was raised once again by David Miles, who reclaimed his Top Individual Fundraiser crown.
View/Purchase Event Photos by Stan Farrell Photography
And once the final team cheer was completed, there was no doubt who was going to win the Team Spirit Award. That prize also went right back were it went last year — to the Citi Cards II team. In fact it was their fifth consecutive Team Spirit title. While their cheer presentation has gotten more elaborate each and every year, the 2009 effort will be difficult to top. Setting up, appropriately, directly across from the Hard Rock Cafe, the Citi Cards team did a spoof of the Michael Jackson "Beat It" video complete with a guitar player to cash in the award.
In fact the only new winner in the 2009 Big Brown Truck Pull came in the best T-shirt competition, were cow-themed T-shirts bearing the slogans "I raised Moooooooolah for Special Olympics" and "Let's moooooove that truck."
See complete Pull Results
This year's event saw 560 people take part, raising slightly more than $104,000 for Special Olympics.
Our thanks to everyone who helped make the Big Brown Truck Pull such a great day, including team captains and pullers, volunteers and our sponsors: ResCare, LINAK, UPS, Texas Roadhouse, 4th Street Live!, 99.7 DJX, FM Talk 105.1, Louisville's CW WBKI, CBS Outdoor, The Kentucky Law Enforcement Torch Run and Louisville Mojo.
The Big Brown Truck Pull continues to be a tremendous vehicle for companies and organizations to promote themselves and their work in the community. For information on how your company or organization can be a part of the 2010 Big Brown Truck Pull, contact Candace Thompson at 502-326-5002 or cthompson@soky.org
Men's Division — TONKA Tuggers; 3.33 seconds
Women's Division — UPS Fly Girlz; 4.35 sec.
Co-Ed Division — NPAS; 3.46
Top Fundraising Team — ResCare; $11,854
Top Individual Fundraiser — David Miles, ResCare; $3,122
Spirit Award — Citi Cards II
Best T-Shirt — NPAS
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