By: Hailey Burrow and Katie Hornburg
You’re probably wondering, what happened to the annual hot dog eating contest?
According to ABC30, an unfortunate event unraveled when a man choked and died during a taco eating contest at a Grizzlies game in August of 2019. This event caused many concerns about the annual hot dog eating contest during Cowhide week.
As this year’s contest approached, Taylor’s reached out to VUSD to discuss insuring the event. Because of the death earlier in the year and the risk involved with eating contests, VUSD risk management decided to pull support for the event. Redwood Gigantea has reached out to the VUSD officials seeking comment on this, however as of press time, they have not responded.
This competition has been a Redwood vs. Mount Whitney tradition since 2010. A few people who originally came up with this idea were Isaac Lopez, former RHS activities director, and Mr. Lor, who held the hot dog eating record for winning three years in a row.
He and his friends created this contest to kick start cowhide week with a little friendly competition. When asked about his feelings towards this cancellation, Lopez says that he is bummed and frustrated this tradition was put to a stop.
ASB organized a make-up event in place of the contest. This event is called “Kiss the Cow,” and took place at the Cowhide carnival on Friday. ASB also hosted a donut eating contest for the football players on Tuesday at lunchtime.