How many NFL Draft prospects could claim to be a two-time champion of the Solon Beef Days hay bale toss?
Forget about any all- conference honor or academic award. The beefiest accolade in this year’s class belonged to Gennings Dunker, a crowd favorite in Pittsburgh thanks to his audacious red-haired mullet.
He has skills.
“I grew up baling hay back home in Lena, Ill.,” said Dunker, an Iowa offensive lineman and third-round pick of the Steelers.
Beef Days is a two-day celebration held each July in Solon, Iowa, a town of about 3,000 on the state’s eastern side. The street festival opens on a Friday, and the hay bale toss serves as a kickoff that night.
“It was kind of an O-line tradition to go do it,” Dunker said. “Me and (Iowa teammate Logan Jones) went out there a couple times, and I guess I got him.”
The 6-foot-5, 319-pounder wasn’t the first NFL hopeful to complete at the small-town festival of beef and beer. Iowa alums Tyler Linderbaum, Marshal Yanda, Chad Greenway and Tristan Wirfs were some of the other notable contenders over the years.
“Solon Beef Days have been around awhile,” said Matt Kroul, who organizes the bale toss. “It’s what you’d think of a hometown, small-town, fun days. A couple of days of carnivals, kids’ rides, parades.”
For more than two decades, the bale toss has drawn spectators to a blocked-off main street. Nowadays, local news outlets video stream the competition.
The event uses a raised bar, much like the high jump or pole vault. The bar starts 9 feet off the ground and goes up in 6-inch increments each round, Kroul said. There are multiple divisions, including one for women.
Simply put, contestants must throw the hay bale over the bar without knocking it down.
“I bet the square bale, depending on the year, weighs between 60 to 75 pounds,” Kroul said. “You get a couple of tries at each height. If you clear the height, you move on. You go until you can’t throw any more.”
By the way, Kroul isn’t merely the event organizer. He is a previous participant and former Iowa defensive tackle who spent time with the New York Jets.
“I’m not going to toot my own horn, but you might be talking to the seven-time champ,” Kroul said by phone Monday, having pulled his tractor to the side of the road to talk.
As the event organizer, Kroul made an effort to recruit Iowa players to take part. Dunker was champion in 2022 and ’23. Redshirt junior center Kade Pieper won the past two years. Kroul said he believed Linderbaum and Wirfs were previous champions, too.
“I have a group of five, six, seven guys that come down,” Kroul said. “It’s just 15 miles away from Iowa City, so we get a good group of O-linemen. Some skill players sometimes give it a go and have a blast. They come down and have steak sandwiches and throw some hay bales.”
Nobody wants to look weak.
“You don’t want to be the first one out,” Kroul said. “There’s bragging rights in the locker room.”
In recent years, the football players started showing up in uniform. Not their football uniforms, but rather flannel and denim and boots.
For Dunker, sleeves were optional.
“He’s something else,” said Kroul, who watched to see which NFL team drafted Dunker, and whether Solon got mentioned on TV.
“People kept texting me during the draft, ‘Hey, when’s the hay bale toss gonna be shown?’ ” Kroul said. “And then, all of a sudden, some clips popped up of the big redheaded Viking.”
The Steelers drafted Dunker with the 96th pick. He played tackle at Iowa but likely plays guard for the Steelers.
“I love how he was like the superstar of the draft just because of the hair,” Kroul said.
The Steelers probably didn’t draft Dunker for his hay bale skills, but his new position coach said he respected them. Offensive line coach James Campen pointed to the hip flexion and punch needed to throw a bale in the air.
“Well, I tell you, I’m a country boy myself, so I’ve done the hay bale toss,” Campen said. “I was not a champion. Far from it.”
Dunker wasn’t sure hay bale tossing shared any similarities to being a lineman, but he conceded that there might be.
“I guess maybe explosiveness,” he said. “I’m not sure throwing a hay bale exactly correlates, but I guess it’s a handy skill to have.”
However, Kroul, the bale toss organizer and former lineman, saw one obvious similarity.
“Oh, man, just being a little loony,” he said with a laugh. “I mean, to go out there and throw hay bales over a pole in the middle of an Iowa town is a bit loony. But we have fun.”