Town ups the ante on Fourth of July egg toss

SENECA, Mo. -- Think you and a partner could carry off a 100-yard egg toss? A group in Seneca has gambled $200 that says you can't. But there's a $10,000 prize if you can.

The big contest takes place July 3, during the two-day Fourth of July celebration in the small, southwest Missouri town on the Kansas border.

Seneca has held an egg-toss contest for years, but of the more traditional kind.

For top prizes of about $10, two-member teams in varying age groups would see who could throw a raw egg the farthest without the egg breaking.

Chamber of Commerce president J.B. Kelly said members of the Liberty Days committee, which plans the annual events for the chamber, hatched the idea of a 100-yard throw for a five-figure prize after last year's Fourth of July.

"This is the first time this has been done, and probably the largest prize ever for an egg-toss contest," he said.

As for a record distance, "We found that the world record was set in Texas in 1978, just shy of 108 yards," he said.

Kelly said an insurance company in Texas, for a $200 fee, agreed to write the $10,000 prize insurance policy. Equating the egg-toss event to a hole-in-one golf contest, Kelly said the insurance company did its homework on the odds.

"They did the same research we did," Kelly said. "And they know the odds are in their favor."

Teams will compete through standard process of elimination, starting at 10 yards apart and tossing their eggs back and forth to their teammates.

Those who succeed step back 10 yards to toss again. The playing field will be marked for distance.

The $10,000 prize is ensured only if a team works its way all 100 yards of the high-school football field, with one member throwing an egg 100 yards and the other catching the egg without breaking or dropping it.

To ensure fairness, the eggs will be provided to contestants.

If no teams reach the 100-yard mark, $1,000 and $500 will be awarded to the first- and second-place winners, respectively.

Kelly said the committee tested various eggs to see which work best for tossing: White, brown, chilled or room temperature. Grade A large white chicken eggs will be used.

One committee member, Brian Mitchell, got out on the football field and sailed an egg 55 yards on his first try, Kelly said.

"It can be done," Kelly said.

Last year's winner, Tom Butler, 41, of rural Seneca, said he isn't sure how far he tossed the egg to his nephew, Isaac Cascioli, who was visiting from Ohio.

"It was only 25 yards, if that," Butler said. "One hundred yards is quite a ways."

Butler said he doesn't expect to pull off another win in July, but will compete anyway because it's just about "having fun."

Butler said he doesn't have any winning techniques to share.

"It's all just luck," he said.