It was 1972 when the first National Young Bird Show began. Everyone at this particular period of time that had pouters and croppers had to exhibit their birds with the Rare Breeds Club and this occurred for a few years. Ernie Neuner, Ralph Grider, Russell Duffy and Leslie Hall began to put together a few hundred gathering of pouters and croppers at the National Young Bird Show and the Kentucky State Fair. It was then, that a man by the name of Orman Forcht happened to be doing some of the judging for the past few years at these shows. He approached Ralph and Ernie with the idea of starting a club for the pouters and croppers. He had figured since these gentleman were already members of the Louisville Pigeon Club including himself, than what better time than now! Ralph and Ernie began to talk about it from time to time. In 1976 they decided to start a club. The next bid decision was to decide on a name for this new club. Ernie came up with the name of the Central Cropper & Pouter Club! A few people questioned him as to why the name Central? His response was always the same. "Well, since we are pretty much centrally located in the country, that’s what central means". So from two devoted pouter men this club began to grow from 35 to 150 members at times. For years Ralph, Ernie and Dan Legrand were the officers that ran the club. They had lawn shows at Ralph’s and Dan’s every year were new members and friends were found. News of the Central Cropper and Pouter Club began to spread like wildfire throughout the country. Soon shows started to in these areas from Fremont Ohio, Hartford City Indiana, Muncie Indiana, Dayton Ohio, the list goes on and on. But, everyone would always remember the National Young Bird Show in Louisville Kentucky. Ernie would always try to do things for the members. On Friday evening he and his wife Evelyn would always have drinks and snacks for the members coming in from the long haul out of town. Then on Saturday at noon they would provide lunch for the members. It was a lot of work but they enjoyed it. The club was also well known for its correspondence from its members, there was a lot and everyone pitched in with an article or two. This made it fairly easy for Ernie as Secretary/Treasurer to have material for the bulletin. In September of 1993 after a hard fight with diabetes Ernie Neuner had passed away. With Ralph as President and Dan Legrand as Vice-President, Ralph took on the Secretary/Treasurer position during Ernie’s illness and did both for years until he and Dan found a new president. After 10 years with Ralph as Secretary/Treasurer and Dan as Vice-President and various presidents throughout the years the club remained and stayed together like glue. In 2001 Bryan Neuner, Ernie Neuners son, gave Ralph a much needed rest from his position and took on the Secretary/Treasurer position and Ralph took back his position as he did when the club began as president and Mike Kraft as Vice-President. So 25 years have come and gone and the Central Cropper & Pouter Club is still just as solid as the day it began! Let us not forget our past and how we arrived to this day with support, tradition and devotion to each other and our pouters and croppers!
Written by: Ralph A. Grider & Bryan L. Neuner
