Philly’s Most Raucous Party Comes to the Riverwards: SugarHouse, Radio 94.1 WIP Host Wing Bowl Qualifying Competition
There are few instances where it’s socially acceptable to be publicly intoxicated at 6 AM. Wing Bowl is one of them. If you’re fortunate enough to not be working on the Friday before the Super Bowl (it’s not too late to take off!), you may feel pressured by a few buddies to head down to the sports complex in South Philly for a morning of debauchery.
This past Thursday night, WIP Sports Radio hosted the Wing Bowl 24 Qualifying Competition at Sugarhouse Casino. The event was co-hosted by WIP’s Marc Farzetta and Bex from 96.5 Amp Radio and gave amatuer eaters the opportunity to eat and compete in order to win $500 and the opportunity to take part in Wing Bowl 24 in front of more than 20,000 rowdy event-goers on February 5th.
Hosts Marc Farzetta and Bex pose with Elaine Daniels after she stole the show in the final round./Ptah Gabrie
According to Farzetta, the Qualifying Competition is meant to give local eaters an opportunity to complete alongside professional competitive eaters, local athletes and pop culture icons at Wing Bowl.
“Wing Bowl is the event in Philadelphia where anybody who is an average Joe can become a sports hero,” Farzetta said. “[Competitors] get paraded around Wells Fargo Center on February 5 like they’re sports heroes. But if you’re not local, you can’t win tonight.”
Contestants arrived at the casino two hours early to sign up for the competition. Each competitor was challenged to eat as many chicken wings as they could in four, 10 minute heats. The rules were simple: Each competitor had to clean each wing entirely of meat and, as Farzetta put it, “If you heave, you leave.”
Tiger Wings and Things (Right) was the winner with 60 wings devoured in 10 minutes. He took home $500, and earned a spot at Wing Bowl 24 on February 5./Ptah Gabrie
Most competitors went by stage names that elicited chuckles from the hosts and audience, like “Oink Oink” and “Rob the Slob.” If you didn’t give yourself a cool wing-inspired stage name, you ran the risk of being booed. This is Philly after all.
That was unless you happened to be a nice old lady who decided to participate in a wing eating competition for the first time. A new record in Wing Bowl history was set when Elaine Daniel, 83, took the stage as the oldest contestant to ever participate in a Wing Bowl Qualifying Competition. While she only finished two plates of wings in 10 minutes, Daniels won the crowd over as they cheered her on the entire time.
Uncle Rico is a true warrior of wing eating, but maintains a subtle grace as he tears through wing after wing./Ptah Gabrie
According to her she didn’t have a strategy and the hardest part was tearing the wings apart.
“It was alright,” Daniel said.
Louise Hanible, 75, also took part in the competition and put down about a dozen wings herself.
“Some of the chicken was fried too hard,” Hanible said. “We eat a lot of hot wings in my house… I’m up to try anything and [participating in the Qualifying Competition] was worth it.”
Kip Winger’s determination and sweaty red face made him the crowd pleaser of the first round./Ptah Gabrie
Not all the contestants were nice old ladies and what some of them did to those chicken wings was not too nice either. A sweaty, red-faced “Kip Winger” demolished wing after wing without prejudice. Another veteran eater “Uncle Rico,” who already earned a spot at Wing Bowl 24 by eating 26 wings in five minutes, was at the SugarHouse Qualifying Competition to get some extra practice in. According to Uncle Rico, he’s trying to beat his previous Wing Bowl record of 205 wings and hopes to top out around 300.
“The excitement of it all is the best part… being next to all these people and eating your face off,” Uncle Rico said.
“If you’ve never been to [Wing Bowl], you have to go to experience it. Just telling the story of Wing Bowl doesn’t do it justice.” He acknowledges that he’ll be facing stiff competition and that the current record of 444 wings eaten by last year’s winner Patrick Bertoletti will be tough to beat.
The winner of the Wing Bowl 24 Qualifying Competition was David “Tiger Wings and Things” Brunelli, who may be best remembered for heaving and leaving in the final round of the 2013 Wing Bowl. He also competed in last year’s Qualifying Competition, chipping one of his teeth in the process.
This time around, Tiger Wings and Things savagely devoured 60 wings in 10 minutes, winning him $500 and another spot at Wing Bowl. He took a standing approach to wing annihilation: At times his face was covered with chicken grease and sauce, but he had the look of true determination as he sucked down each wing on his path to victory.
“They were a little hard, but they were warm and easy to eat,” Tiger Wings and Things said. “The water was cold and kind of hurts you a little bit.”
The contestants are excited, as round one of the Wing Bowl 24 Qualifying Competition is about to begin./Ptah Gabrie
According to Tiger Wings, he takes part in between 35-40 eating contests a year and has participated in about 200 throughout his career as a competitive eater. He also says that contests like this are a way for him to stay competitive after years of competing as a boxer. “I’m a former professional boxer, so when I stepped away, this let me compete,” Tiger Wings and Things said.
