Prepared with a bag of Tums and a bottle of milk, two University of Texas professors and one student competed in Drift Magazine’s first-ever Hot Wing Showdown on Thursday.
The magazine hosted its hot wing eating competition at the Dealey Center for New Media. The professors, Robert Quigley and Marialena Rivera, and Drift Magazine’s social media director and third-year advertising major, Leiloni James, participated in the competition to raise money for Drift Magazine’s first print publication. Whoever could eat the most wings the fastest would be the winner.
“We’re trying to publish our very first print magazine, but that takes a lot and we really didn’t have that much money,” Drift Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Jimenez said. “We thought this would be fun and also a way to raise money.”
Quigley came into the competition prepared with background research on competitive eating.
“I did some googling this morning to see how people who are competitive eaters prepare,” Quigley said. “They said to eat something bland for lunch, so I had a potato, and I drank lots of water. So I think I was mentally in a good place.”
Rivera had low expectations for eating all her vegetarian hot wings, but planned to do her best, even if that meant losing.
“I brought my own cutlery, I brought my lap napkin for good luck,” Rivera said. “My kids think I’m going to lose with grace, so I’m gonna go with that.”
James said her strategy for winning the contest was to simply “go all out,” while Quigley said his strategy was trying not to puke.
As the competition commenced, the crowd asked the contestants questions like why they love the outdoors and what their most embarrassing college and teaching moments were.
“There’s this video I always show to my freshman class,” Quigley said. “So I look it up on YouTube. It looked like the same video, but halfway through it was porn. I look at every video so carefully now.”
Quigley was the last survivor and winner of the competition, eating a total of 15 hot wings.
Jimenez said they hope the competition can continue annually and hope to have other fundraising projects in the future.
“It’s a fun little challenge, it’s entertaining and I feel like it’s timeless in a way,” Jimenez said. “(It’s) just different ways to get the community engaged.”
Photo by Lillian Vest