When many hear the phrase “the great American pastime,” they think of baseball. There is another pastime slowly gaining popularity across the country: competitive eating.

While at work on Wednesday, I found out the Alumni Association, along with Wings to Go, 3706 Lincoln Way, was going to host the first annual “Herky Wing-Eating Contest” at the pep rally Thursday. I was full of excitement like a child at Christmas. It was all I could think about. I immediately printed off the registration form and turned it in.

I was told that I would be contacted by 9 p.m. Wednesday if I was selected at random to be a participant in the contest. I was a little nervous because only two applicants were selected for each grade level. The lady I gave my registration form to, though, told me that I would probably have a good chance at being selected because of the number of applications they had – or hadn’t – received yet.

Competitive eating is an area that I actually have some experience and ability in. For as long as I can remember, I have enjoyed eating food. I consider it one of my passions and greatest abilities. Even from a young age I was able to eat great quantities when needed or desired.

I am also no stranger to the world of amateur eating contests. This past summer I competed in a cheeseburger-eating contest sponsored by the company I was working for. I was not allowed to win because I worked for the sponsor, but I was allowed to fill the extra spot and eat two pounds of ground beef patties as fast as I could.

I also have a personal record of eating 51 buffalo wings in one sitting. This was not a part of an official competition, but was done to prove my friend’s dad wrong. He bet I couldn’t eat 50 wings, but I did, and I even added one out of spite.

These were just warm-ups.

Needless to say, I was feeling pretty confident that I could pull off walking away from this a champion.

I spent the rest of the day awaiting some form of notification that I was selected. As 8:45 p.m. rolled around, I began to lose all hope.

At about 11:30 p.m. I received an e-mail saying that I had been selected to be one of the contestants. I was overjoyed.

The next day I had to force myself not to eat anything, so that I would be at the top of my game for the big event that night. It was like I was getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner – except that on Thanksgiving, everyone wins.

By the afternoon I was beginning to want some lunch, but I knew that nothing good comes easy and greatness requires sacrifice. So I held out in silent hunger, waiting for 5:30 p.m. to roll around.

When it finally came time to step onto the proverbial battlefield, my stomach was churning with anticipation and excitement, as well as hunger.

I signed in at the table, where I was handed a liability waiver for the event. I skimmed through it and signed it, knowing that I would never press charges against someone who gave me free food.

I was also asked to clarify my name, hometown and major for my introduction.

Earlier in the newsroom during a random discussion, it was suggested and decided that I refer to myself as “El Chupacabra,” or the Mexican goat-sucker. For those of you who need to brush up on your Mexican folklore, allow me to get you up to speed.

El Chupacabra is a mythical beast from Mexican folklore which is blamed for the inexplicable deaths of goats and other livestock. This is where the name came from, as it is believed that el chupacabra sucks all of the blood out of goats.

With that little bit of fun background information in mind, some of my co-workers thought it would be funny if I was introduced by this name, so when it came time to verify my name, I had to live up to my word and asked that they use this new nickname.

Jeff Johnson, president of the ISU Alumni Association, was the emcee for the event and the person I needed to talk to in order to approve my addition of a nickname.

With a chuckle he agreed.

I mingled with some of the other participants while we waited for the contest to begin. We exchanged small talk about what we did to prepare for the challenge, and what we expected it to be.

Until we were actually going on stage, everything was speculation. Was it going to be a test of quantity of wings eaten or the speed of consumption? Were they the hottest wings available from Wings To Go? Did anyone have any extra Tums I could take in case of an emergency? It was not knowing these things that ate at our nerves the most.

It turned out that each of us were given 20 boneless wings, of which we had to eat as many as possible in two minutes.

Each of us then took our quart of milk and waited for our name to be called up.

El Chupacabra was ready and waiting over his box of wings, holding back until he was given the green light to feast.

EAT!

As soon as Johnson told us to go, all of the boxes of wings simultaneously opened and the contestants began to stuff our faces with these delicious morsels of wings.

I started off strong, downing three wings within the first few seconds. After a few more seconds of face stuffing, I developed a system of inserting a wing into my mouth with my right hand and take a swig of milk from my left hand.

Wing goes in. Chew twice. Shot of milk. Chew once. Swallow. Repeat.

This went on and I could feel my heart pounding as the adrenaline rushed through my body. With each passing second, I could feel the pressure growing.

About halfway through I almost lost everything.

While trying to regulate my breathing, something went wrong. I half-sneezed and almost lost all the contents of my mouth. Luckily I have a strong jaw and kept it all in, pushing on through the fight.

As the box of wings grew more and more empty, I could tell I was getting close, but other people must have been, as well.

Ten seconds.

Oh no! I still have three wings left. I force in another wing, while choking down the partially chewed wings already in there. This goes on until there is just one wing left, but the countdown is also running low.

With two seconds left, I stuffed the last wing in and chewed like I have never chewed before.

I did it!

I could barely believe it. I finished all 20 wings, and what’s even better is I seemed to be the first person to have done this.

After a moment of disbelief, I stood up to show I was done.

But it was too late.

In my split second of disbelief and hesitation, another contestant arose from the line. The two of us had finished at the same time, but I was too slow.

Defeated and bloated, I left the table and retired to the newsroom to finish up my work for the night.

Looking back, I consider myself to be a winner, even if I didn’t walk away with the gift certificate to Dogtown University, 108 Hayward Ave.

The way I see it, we were all winners that night. Being the stereotypical poor, starving college kid, we all won a free meal of wings. And Danny like wingeys.