Nathan’s winners 1967-1989 from news archives
A listing of Nathan’s winners obtained from online news archives follows.
Some notes about the contests:
- 1986 title match, Hiroaki Tominaga was the first reported Japanese competitor in a Nathan’s contest. At 6 feet, 6 inches and 264 pounds, he is considerably larger than Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota. While in New York City, he competed in the Empire State Building staircase race and finished last.
- 1984 Birgit Felden is the only reported female winner of a July 4 contest. She is now a business professor unless there are multiple Birgit Feldens from Cologne.
- 1981 It was not clear from the contest report if the duration was 5 minutes or the winner stopped eating after that time and had a large enough margin to win.
- 1978 Co-champion Kevin Sinclair was 10 years old
- 1974 Atlantic City – this is the first reported contest outside Coney Island. The runner-up, Carmen Cordero, might be the winner of the first two Wing Bowls.
- 1972 Labor Day – After her victory, Melody Andorfer said “I’m determined not to let those male chauvinist pigs dominate us any longer.” She would model swimsuits in articles about Coney Island in 1973 and 1974.
- 1967 – this contest was held to commemorate the centennial of the hot dog. It is difficult to believe that Walter Paul ate 127 hot dogs in an hour, but that is what is in the news archive.
The following contests are mentioned in the news archives, but no winners were reported for them:
| 1979 Jul 4 | I | Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest | Coney Island | Brooklyn, NY |
| 1973 Sep 1 | I | Nathan’s Famous Corn on the Cob Eating Contest | Coney Island | Brooklyn, NY |
| 1973 Jul 4 | I | Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest | Coney Island | Brooklyn, NY |
The 1973 labor day weekend contest was changed to a corn on the cob contest due to a lack of meat. The unnamed winner ate 4 ears in less than 3 minutes.
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R-suzuki said
July 1, 2008 @ 10:36 am
Hiroaki Tominaga is a height 181cm, and 95kg in weight.
http://music.geocities.jp/tommyzoh/tommyhp05_002.htm