“Krazy” Kevin Lipsitz sent out the following retirement statement. MosesNews.com has a lot of pictures of Krazy Kevin.

update Kobayashi also has a tribute to Kevin Lipsitz

Dear George and Rich and all my friends in the Competitive Eating Community,

The time has come for me to retire from Competive Eating, after a long run of 10 years. I have enjoyed all the years I have been part of the eating contests and more important than all the trophies, TV shows, movies and prizes that I have won, are the friendships and memories I am taking away with me.

I have truly enjoyed every contest from my first Nathan’s contest in 1997, through all the years after that. During that time I got to travel all over the country, putting thousands of miles in the air and on the road, under my belt. Hundreds of memories will always be with me.

As one of the original pioneers of the sport, as it started to take shape and eventually became the IFOCE and MLE, I was proud to be there at the very beginning, when some of the legends such as Ed Kratchie and Curtis Sliwa, Mike Devito and Hirofumi Nakajima were still active and at the top of their game. I remember very vividly when I sent Curtis Sliwa into permanent retirement at the 2000 Carnegie Deli- United Pickle International Championship. Fortunately, Curtis took it in stride and it was not awkward everytime I ran into him in later years.

It was lots of fun being in every single Nathan’s contest for 7 years straight, from 1997 through 2003 and it took lots of hard work and perserverence to make it in every year. If nothing else, I was stubborn and refused to let a 2nd or 3rd place finish keep me down. To me, first place at a qualifier was just around the corner, although that corner was somtimes clear across the country. Being in the Ben’s Matzoh Ball contests was something that I was very proud of and I had the distinction of being in every single qualifier during their entire run, as it supported a great cause, the Interfaith Nutrition Network.

Being the star of an episode of To Tell the Truth, being with my wife, Lorraine, doggies Sabrina and Rascal and buddies Don and Ed in Gutbusters I, and BigEats, as well as one of the biggest events of all, the legendary Glutton Bowl, which has never been duplicated in any future contest on that scale, was something that will be forever preserved in my memory. Having Amos Wengler write and sing an original hot dog song to my doggies Lynn and Sabrina on the Boardwalk at 5:30 am in Coney Island, as the sun came up, while Lee Goldberg broadcast the weather live and Rabbi Abraham Abraham laid on a bed of ice to demonstrate his own brand of insanity, all at the same time……….. I mean who else could have made all of that possible, other than George and Rich?

I am very lucky in that I got to eat with ALL the greats of the last 10 years, including the current stars of the IFOCE and MLE and it is was nice being on a first name basis with all of you guys. Eating at the same table with all the old school eaters as well as all the new top kids on the block has really kept me on my toes and I have learned a lot about sportsmanship along the way from my fellow eaters.

It was an honor to have met and become friends with Takeru Kobayashi and I know he truly enjoyed being our guest when Lorraine and I took Don Lerman, Takeru Kobayashi and his girlfriend to the Jay Leno Tonite Show taping, when we had gotten some tickets from our producer friends. Even though Kobi didn’t speak English very well then, I know that he really had a fun time that day.

A lot of eaters are really great people in their non-eating lives. On the one extreme, I rubbed elbows with guys who had gotten out of prison just days before, ie. at the Meadowlands Race Track Hot Dog Contest……… I am assuming they had permission to be out of prison……… it was the first good meal he had had in years…… 🙂 and on the other extreme, one of the nicest and greatest humanitarians, Ray Meduna, who selflessly raised money for a sick friend in his hometown, who was in need, with the support from all his friends at Boeing (Ray is a top-level Boeing engineer). Ray has been a great friend and it has always been a treat when we ran into him. I think of Ray whenever we get on a Boeing jet.

Being there at the start of Kid Cary DeGrossa’s career and being able to see all of the zaniness and fanfare that accompanied a Kid Cary parade appearance with his beautiful bunnettes was something that can never be duplicated. You just had to be there to experience it. Words cannot describe it accurately. Thanks, Kid, for all the memories! After having visited your home in Las Vegas, it is what every bachelor pad should aspire to be!

Even though I did not win every contest I entered, for quite some time, I had the most 2nd and 3rd place finishes of anyone out there and I served my purpose. 🙂 In order for someone to have a good win, they have to beat someone of worth and I realize that my place at many of the contests was to be the guy to beat. In many of the earlier years, I would get beat out by just one hot dog, half a hot dog or one and one quarter chicken wings (you got lucky, Tim Janus, on that fateful day in DC 🙂 ) ….. but I always took it in stride. Guys knew, that if they beat Krazy Kevin, they would walk home with the trophy that day. Some days they did, others they didn’t and they can come visit the trophies they lost on my eating championship table in my living room. 🙂 Eating against greats like Eric “Badlands” Booker and “Hungry” Charles Hardy was always a treat and by having been at so many contests, I was there when many of the past and present greats made their debut. I was even there when Crazy Legs Conti made his debut at the Hot Dog Safari in Boston……. I remember him having to prove to my wife, Lorraine, that his legal name REALLY was Crazy Legs and whipping out his credit cards and driver’s license to prove it to her (she was quite the skeptic). I know it will put a smile on their faces when they remember that I did not make it easy for them to win and they had to break quite a sweat on many occasions to beat me out and snatch the trophy.

I am proud to have helped create the monsters that later became Don “Moses” Lerman and Ed “Cookie” Jarvis by telling them about all the other contests. I still emember the day when Don showed up a year later at a Nathan’s contest, after I had shared info with him at a Ben’s contest. I cannot honestly say I was happy to see him that day, although we later became good friends. I also made the same mistake with Ed by telling him that he should participate in other contests in other disciplines. Although I never was able to beat Ed, we later became good friends. So having created the monsters: Don “Moses” Lerman and Ed “Cookie” Jarvis, who are two of my best friends to this day, looking back, I would have done it all over again the same way. 🙂

Throughout it all, I never felt a win would never be a win for me, unless I had good competition. I even set up my own pickle demise in 2002, by inviting all the great eaters of the time to participate and watched as Beautiful Brian SeIken took away my crown. However, if I had not invited them all, and I had won, it would not have been a worthy win. In 2000, I took away the crown from 3 time champ Curtis Sliwa, so that was a good win. In 2002, Sandy Levine of Carnegie Deli and Steve Leibowitz gave me total control of who would be invited to the 2002 Pickle championship and I invited all of the best eaters of the day. That is always the way I have approached all the contests. I always enjoyed competing against the best, even if it meant I might not win that day. Even if I did not win, it made me a better eater and a better person. I learned what true sportmanship is, from my friends Rich and Carlene LeFevre. The only thing I cannot understand about Rich, after having visited his beautiful home in Henderson NV, is how he can live in a house where there is so much pink……must be true love for Carlene. 🙂

I would also like to thank my friend and fellow competitor and at times, arch rival (former arch enemy) Beautiful Brian Seiken for spending so much time chronicling my eating career on his web site, www.beautifulbrian.com. A lot of people do not appreciate all the hard work that goes into his web site and he does not get nearly enough thanks for it.

Even though I may be retiring, I still have the world’s largest collection of Nathan’s T-Shirts from dozens and dozens of qualifiers over the years and even though some of the shirts have started showing their age (according to Ed, this actually started happening years ago), I will continue to wear them proudly, even though my family sometimes wishes I would wear something else to family events. The Nathan’s shirts are sacred and even my wife, Lorraine, has been warned against permanently retiring them from my closet (ie. moving them into the trash).

I hope to remain part of the competitve eating community and participate in some fashion in the future, even though I will not be eating competitively any longer.

I would like to thank Rich and George for the opportunity to have been part of something so great for so long.

I am not sad at all as I retire. I have lots of great memories………. I get to see a larger than life likeness of my face on the Nathan’s Wall of Fame, along with the greats of the past , there for me every time I visit Coney Island……… and have taken away the most important thing of all, friends I have made along the way, whom I would not otherwise have met.

Sincerely,

Kevin “Krazy Kevin” Lipsitz

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