A century of service, one schism, and the pursuit of complete knowledge of barbecue
Starting in 1919 as the Baylor Chamber of Commerce, the organization served the university for nine decades. Changes in organizational direction in the late 2000s led a dedicated group of Chambermen to disassociate and form the Baylor Department of BBQ Sciences. The group upheld the core values of Chamber while pursuing the unattainable but worthy goal of complete knowledge of BBQ.
- 1919
The Chamber is founded
The Baylor Chamber of Commerce is organized in Waco to serve the university and keep its traditions. For the next ninety years its members show up early, carry heavy things, tend the flame, and eat whatever is handed to them afterward. The Department regards this as the beginning of its own history, whether or not anyone involved would agree.
- Late 2000s
Changes in direction
The organization's direction shifts. The record does not say how, and the faculty declines to elaborate, but a group of Chambermen concludes that the thing they most valued about Chamber was the part after the work, when there was smoke and meat and nobody was in charge. A schism, in the gentlest possible sense, follows.
- 2011
Disassociation and founding expedition
The dissenting Chambermen formally disassociate and constitute the Baylor Department of BBQ Sciences. Their first act is a field expedition to the inaugural Texas Monthly BBQ Fest in Austin. No uniform, no method, no tray. Specimens were carried in whatever hands were free. Several were dropped. The faculty agrees it was the best one.
- 2011
Statement of core values
On the drive home the founders resolve that the Department will keep what Chamber taught them: show up, serve, wear the uniform without irony. To this they add a single academic mission, complete knowledge of barbecue, acknowledged from the first day to be unattainable and pursued anyway.
- 2012–2022
The Long Recess
Eleven consecutive years in which the Department did not meet. Causes cited in later testimony include weddings, children, mortgages, a move to Houston, and one member who "thought we were still doing it and just never got the text." Independent research continued in backyards. Findings were shared by group text and were largely photographs.
- 2023
Reconvening
The Department returns to the Fest, now in Lockhart, after a twelve-year gap. Attendance: full faculty. A half-sheet pan is brought and formally recognized as the Department's primary instrument. Annual field expeditions resume and have not been missed since.
- 2024
The Line Strategy Accord & research units
After a dispute over which pit to approach first, the faculty adopts the Accord: split into pairs, divide the grounds, reconvene at the tree. Six research units are established, one per member, loosely corresponding to what each person will not stop talking about.
- 2025
Peer-review standards; uniform committee convened
A formal scoring vocabulary is adopted ("Fine" is a failing grade; "I'd go back" is the top mark). A proposal for matching apparel is tabled, debated, and approved on the condition that the garment have enough pockets for a fork, a napkin and a second napkin.
- 2026
Class A uniform deployed
Green coveralls, gold embroidery, "Baylor Dept. of BBQ Science." First worn at the 2026 Fest in Lockhart under light rain, fifteen years after the disassociation. The Department was photographed, asked twice if it was official, and declined to clarify.
Core values retained from Chamber
Service before recognition. Early arrival. The uniform, worn properly. Carrying more than your share. Tending a fire for the benefit of people who will never know who built it. The Department has altered none of these; it has only changed what is placed over the fire.
On the mission
Complete knowledge of barbecue is not achievable. Every pit is different, every brisket is different, and the faculty cannot agree about Snow's. The Department pursues it anyway, one tray at a time, on the grounds that a goal worth having need not be one you can reach.
Governance
The Department has no chair. Decisions are made by whoever is holding the tray. Tenure was granted retroactively to all 2011 attendees and cannot be revoked, though the Long Recess can be discussed at length, and is.