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By Bonnie Walker
San Antonio Express-News
SAN ANTONIO — The competition at the 1971 Terlingua World Championship Chili Cook-off was hotter than a habanero on a smoking skillet.
A woman from Fredericksburg, Texas, named Allegani Jani Schofield, was all fired up. Clad in a pair of tight red short shorts and a white T-shirt, armed with a fire extinguisher and an attitude, she had a secret ingredient in her chili recipe and a very public determination to win.
It was the first year, ever, that women were allowed to compete in the Terlingua event. She was ready to cook her heart out in this knock-down, drag-out, chili-cooking match, certain that her brew, being absolutely the best in the world, would win.
"But, I got down there and saw it was all just one big farce," Schofield said, laughing. "This chili cook-off was a place where these men got together to boast about their chili, drink, cook, and boast some more."
Schofield had won her ticket to the Terlingua contest by winning one of the top three prizes at a women's-only event at Luckenbach, Texas, which she had organized with the help of other female chili cooks.
The top three were allowed to enter the 1971 world championship. Their invitations came from journalist Frank X. Tolbert, author of the classic "A Bowl of Red," and one of the organizers of the Terlingua event, along with another Texas journalist, Wick Fowler. The chili cook-off now is named in honor of the late journalists. This year's event was called the 28th Annual Original Terlingua International Frank X. Tolbert, Wick Fowler Memorial Championship Chili Cook-off.
While Schofield didn't win in 1971, she kept trying.
By 1974 the event had grown from a match between a couple of half-serious contenders to a field...