Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

Newport Center Mall, Jersey City, NJ

June 28, 1997


Joseph "The Professor" Terwilliger finishes in second place, by ONE BITE!!!

Even with the 40 pounds of extra weight acquired during the months of training Pat Gambino and Harald Goring put me through in preparation, the hiccoughs did me in and kept me just out of contention...

"I coulda been a contender..." - JT, 7/28/1997


Click below to watch an MPEG video of the contest, the pre-game, and post-game wrap-up by my manager, the one and only Patrick J. Gambino, UPS



Of course, only later did we discover the sad fact that most of the winners normally "purge" after the contest, which seems to violate one of the rules as laid out by Bobby J... I, on the other hand went out for ice cream after the contest, and kept everything down, even though I was not so comfortable for the next few days ;) But the bottom line is that this practice encourages unhealthy eating disorders in the name of sports. This purging is the equivalent of steroids and should, in my opinion, be purged from the sport. A simple monitor for 12 hours after the contest to make sure the winner keeps it all down would be in the best interests of all involved, and would actually constitute the definition of eating. This year, 2002, had the winner barely able to keep the hotdogs in his mouth until the bell sounded, and we can all imagine he did not keep those 20 pounds of added weight for long after the bell... Just my two cents!

Joseph "the professor" Terwilliger