Famous Whitehall Sasquatch Contest Returns Saturday — Remember This ESPN Video?

Don't Panic if You Hear Screams Coming from Whitehall

If you hear some very loud, blood-curdling screams coming from the woods around Whitehall this weekend, don't panic. They're probably supposed to be there.

The Whitehall Sasquatch Festival & Calling Contest returns Saturday, September 26, bringing Bigfoot believers, skeptics, and the simply Sasquatch-curious together for one of Upstate New York's most wonderfully bizarre traditions.

Read More: Another Strange UFO Claim Reported in Upstate New York

That Time ESPN Came to Whitehall

And with the competition returning this weekend, we couldn't help but remember the time ESPN came to Whitehall to see what all the screaming was about.

Photo: Tommy St. Clair

Yes, that ESPN.

The network that covers elite athletes competing at the highest level once turned its attention to people standing behind a microphone and doing their absolute best impression of a large, hairy creature supposedly roaming the woods of Upstate New York.  And it was awesome.

ESPN's feature explored Whitehall's decades-old Bigfoot lore and, more importantly, captured the Sasquatch Calling Contest in all its glory.

Photo: YouTube

Contestants growled, some howled, and others screamed.

And then one woman stepped up and essentially said, "Hold my beer."

Defending champion Lisa Loeber went completely, gloriously balls-to-the-wall, unleashing the kind of Sasquatch call that makes you wonder whether Bigfoot was somewhere in the woods thinking... and yes, she won.

And this wasn't just some random scream that happened to impress the judges.

But...What Does Sasquatch Sound Like?

Former Whitehall police officer Brian Gosselin, whose reported 1976 encounter helped cement the town's place in Bigfoot lore, told ESPN that Loeber's call came remarkably close to the sound he remembered hearing during his alleged encounter.

My man has some serious Sasquatch street cred.

So before a new group of brave competitors steps up to the microphone in Whitehall this Saturday, it's absolutely worth revisiting the time ESPN discovered one of Upstate New York's strangest and most entertaining competitions.

Watch the video below. And whatever you do, don't skip the winning call.