'On the Road Again' hosts Boucha, new mini train
While kicking back with a couple of "Hammies" beers after a successful rodeo in South St. Paul, Walt Books and his buddy Bob Yanz started brewing up another attraction to keep the small town on the map: a booya contest.
And it wasn't just going to be a local shindig. Books wanted it to be big. So big, he dubbed it the "World Championship Booya" in 1982, a name that eventually attracted national news coverage and an intense rivalry with other booya organizers — in particular, a Wisconsin newspaper columnist — over Books's claim that South St. Paul is the booya capital of the U.S.