By Steven Doyle
Photos by Robert Bostick
This past weekend brought a group of big eaters together to claim their fame in what had to be one of the wackier competitive eating contests in some time. What was billed as the First Annual Buck Knowlton McNugget-Off, 15 of the areas larger men (women were invited but no takers this round) chewed, grappled, choked and semi-digested as many McNuggets as they could in 15 minutes.
With prizes of $1000, $500 and $100 and 3 beautiful trophies at stake there were many willing to sacrifice digestion trouble for a few days. Some prepared by downing dozens of nuggets days in advance to the contest. Others simply relied on their skill and cunning as a lifetime diner.
“We did this to have a bit of fun. I was passing by a local McDonalds and saw that there was a sale on nuggets when the idea hit me. We do these contests once in a while simply for our own enjoyment,” said Buck Knowlton who would only identify himself as a nugget philanthropist.
A local restaurant hosted the event but refused to allow us to identify them by name. The owner is a friend of Knowlton and the contestants were gathered simply by word of mouth and Facebook.
As the contest began many of the eaters deployed their secret methods for the competition. Some doused their nuggets in water, others in the gooey sauces provided. Buck provided ample of nuggets, nearly 4,000 of the oddly shaped chicken pieces. When the clock chimed the completion of the contest, one person had given up in misery, another lost most of what he devoured, and two contestants tied woofing down a glorious 72 nuggets each.
Knowlton decided it would be fair to split first and second place and added an extra 100 bucks to the pot giving the tied eaters $800 each. As for the first place winners, Mark Wood and Jeff Turner both vowed to never eat a McNugget again.
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