Corn Fed Spartans... A History

In 2011 a couple of friends contacted one of the founders of Spartan Race, Joe Desena, to find out what it would take to get Spartan Race to bring a race to Indiana. Joe told them that if they could get 1,000 or more people to show interest in an Indiana race, Spartan Race would put it on the calendar for the 2012 schedule.

October 20, 2011 is when the team officially began taking shape. On October 26, 2011, the Corn Fed Spartans took to Facebook to try getting the word spread that we wanted a race in Indiana. But the team didn't start out with that name. In the early days, the team was known as the Corn Country Spartans.

The name Corn Country Spartans didn't last very long at all. It was quickly changed to the easily recognizable name that it is today – Corn Fed Spartans. Soon thereafter, the inevitable discussion began of “now that we're a team, we need shirts and a logo.”

On November 18, 2011 a contest to come up with a logo was proposed. For a $5 entry fee, team members could submit their logo design. The only requirements were, “it needs to be associated with Corn Fed Spartans” and “we are wanting a Corn Cob that looks like a Spartan.” 

Several people drew what they thought the Corn Fed Spartans logo should look like and submitted their ideas to the group.

The team elected to go with what has become one of the most recognizable logos in the sport today!

As a team, the Corn Fed Spartans were able to get the word out enough to show Spartan Race that they were going to be heard. By using the power of Facebook to network, team members were able to obtain all 1,000+ emails needed in order for Spartan Race to agree to open up pre-registration for an Indiana Spartan Race Sprint.

The date was set for the first ever Spartan Founders Race to be held in Laurel, IN on April 21, 2012. Over 4,000 people converged on the tiny town of Laurel on a very cold Indiana morning. It was a no thrills kind of race. Simply back to the basics. Relying on the terrain quite a bit, there were a lot of the “standard” Spartan Race obstacles missing. But that didn't make it any less tough.

  One of our Spartan brothers, Steve Skidmore, passed away while training for the 2012 Indiana Spartan Sprint. Upon finding out this horrible news, a team member contacted Joe Desena to see if we could have a memorial or a moment of silence in Steve's honor at the race. Joe went above and beyond that and purchased a 70 pound piece of Vermont marble and had it engraved with Steve's name and bib #1. In true Corn Fed fashion, the marble stone was carried through the entire course, so Steve could be there in some way and complete the course with the team.