In the summer of 1996 Chatham Jaycees John Moore and Bill Frank were exploring something called the Internet in John's basement. Earlier Moore had started writing a somewhat disturbing history of the cow chip throw. An updated version of this document can be found on this site. Anyway in the course of screwing around with something that back then was called "email" they found a way to send this odd document to email addresses of various T.V. shows. To everyone's surprise Late Night with Conan O'Brien actually replied. John received a call from New York telling him that Lorne Michaels had read the email and thought Conan should do a segment of cow chip throwing. The show was struggling in it's time slot up against ABC's Nightline and various OxyClean infomercials, and the network wanted to tap into the Cow Chip throw craze that was sweeping the nation. Dave Schall was president of the Chatham Jaycees at the time and he was elected to represent the club and go to New York and appear on the program. And on July 25th 1996 between 11:55pm and midnight the eyes and ears of the world were focused on Chatham and an international fascination with cow chip throwing began. The Conan O'Brian show was saved and late night T.V. would never be the same. Lots has changed in the past 10 years, the Internet never really caught on and has faded into obscurity, kids today have never heard of email, but, Conan O'Brien is still hosting Late Night on NBC and we still throw poop in Chatham.
Dave brought Cow Chips to New York in donated Pizza Boxes
T.V. in the 1990's was very grainy
Drumming legend and cow chip throw fan Max Weinberg shares a private moment with Dave backstage.
Conan and his sidekick Andy Richter pester Dave all day until he finally agrees to pose for this photo with them as he presents Conan with a laminated cow chip plaque.
Dave spent his entire travel allowance on this spiffy haircut.