On April 14, 1934 Earl Shoemaker of Cumro, Nebraska was digging worms to go fishing. Earl fished every day to help feed his family and so he spent a lot of time with worms. But on that fateful day in April, Earl pulled a worm from the ground that would change history.
"Something about the worm just grabbed me," Earl said in an interview before his death in 1989. "It was almost as if it looked deep into my soul and knew my destiny before I did."
Earl's family was counting on him to bring home catfish from the South Loup river, but suddenly he couldn't bring himself to use any more worms as bait. Perplexed, he returned all the worms he dug that day to their home in the ground, but made a special container for the worm that grabbed his attention, hid it in the family barn and headed to the river with a hook and pole, but no bait. As Earl stood on the bank of the river wondering how he would catch fish with no bait, a grasshopper landed on his thumb.
"When that grasshopper landed on my thumb I knew something bigger was in the works," Earl said. "I didn't know what, but I just knew there was a reason to stop using worms as bait. If that grasshopper hadn't landed on my thumb I may have resorted to using that special worm to catch the family's meal for the day."
Instead, Earl hooked the grasshopper and caught the biggest fish of his life. He started spending time with the worm he kept in the shed and noticed something amazing, the worm was incredibly fast. "I'd set him on the dirt floor to clean his cage and if I looked away for a second he'd be gone." He named the worm Bert, and the rest is history.
Earl shared his new love for worms with his community, and soon weekly races were being held. Bert went undefeated in 27 starts and was retired to stud, eventually becoming the founding sire for the AEWA, which was organized in 1939. Descendants of Bert still carry his heart and stamina today, and a statue of the beloved worm stands in his honor at AEWA headquarters in Cumro, reminding us of the worm who started it all.
