Cleveland.com on the birth of televised competitive eating
Cleveland.com has a long article about competitive eating which focuses on the locally televised contests from the early 1970s.
Before LeBron James, Cleveland sports was the domain of another king — Mariano “Mushmouth” Pachetti. In the 1970s, he could devour an entire pie in 30 seconds. He was unstoppable, a royal glutton.
That is, until Mushmouth met his match: Chris, the Fairview Fireball. In 1972, the saucy German shepherd jawed its title away in a pizza duel.
“Her slices fell to the floor,” says “Big Chuck” Schodowski, who presided over the event. “But she reached down and ate them; she really wanted to win.”
A cleveland.com columnist also tried his hand at competitive eating