Greek life and Student Government association (SGA) have paired together to host the Up in Smoke BBQ Bash at this year’s lighting of the smokestack to be held Sunday, Oct. 5 in Heritage Park.

“We realized that Stephenville and Tarleton is the perfect demographic for a cook-off competition,” Bryson Wolf, Sigma Chi student co-coordinator, said. “Trey Wilson had more knowledge of the cook-off scene and I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted the event to go. We put our heads together and created Smokin’ Meats with Texan Greeks. We had intentions of raising $500 for a single scholarship for the Greek community. The end result was raising $1,582.00 allowing us to give three scholarships and raising three times our original goal. This year the cook-off has been integrated into Tarleton’s homecoming tradition and is now called Up in Smoke Homecoming BBQ Bash.”

Teams are encouraged to enter the barbequing competition which will begin at 7 a.m. Sunday morning prior to the lighting of the smokestack tailgate.

“The Cook-off officially begins at 7 p.m. on Oct. 4 with the cooks meeting,” Taylor Watson, Assistant Director for Fraternity and Sorority Life, said. “This is where we will collect the entry fees which will be donated back to student scholarships. At this time, teams can load their smokers [and] grills into their spot and we will verify the meat. Students, faculty, staff and the Stephenville community may come to the event and, beginning at 2 p.m., can purchase tickets that will allow them to sample the BBQ and vote for the People’s Choice award.

Students with their Texan cards will be able to purchase tickets for $7 and general admission for the community will be $10.

“There will also be an opportunity for discount tickets sent out by Good to See You Texting,” Watson said. “At 4 p.m., we will have a concert by Arena Lights followed by judging. At 7 p.m., we will be announcing the winners and then we will begin the Smoke Stack Lighting Ceremony which will be followed by a free concert by Bart Crow Band.”

Proceeds raised for the event will be placed toward scholarships for Greek students in increments of $500.

“This is an event that we had last year on the day before homecoming started and we wanted to make it bigger and better this year by tying it into Homecoming Week,” Watson said. “I think that the biggest impact is that we have created an official start to the week and that we are actively raising money to give back to the students in scholarship.”

Teams may enter the cook off by following the link below to the sign up and event page on Texan sync. https://orgsync.com/49572/forms/114166

Editor’s note: The Lighting of the Smokestack was also sponsored by the Sigma Chi fraternity of Tarleton State University.