David O'Karma
Encyclopedia
David "Coondog" O'Karma is a Competitive eating
champion, entertainer, and writer from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
. He was formerly a member of the IFOCE, but is now the director of a Competitive Eating organization called the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters
(AICE).
on Portage Trail. He ate 13 sweet potato
pies in one minute to become the WCUE
Sweet Potato Pie-eating Champion. From there he entered the Houlihan and Big Chuck Show's Pizza
Fight of the Century and became the only other person (besides Robert "Wild Mouth" Tilk) to defeat champion eater Mariano "Mushmouth" Pacetti.
On July 4, 1974, Coondog set his first world record by eating 45 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes and 10 seconds, becoming the WCUE Egg-Sucking Champion. Later that summer, at the Cuyahoga Falls Kid's Carnival, Coondog broke another Guinness world record by consuming 25 Krispy Kreme
glazed doughnuts in 15 minutes. After this feat, he retired.
In 2001, Coondog O'Karma came out of a self-imposed retirement of 27 years to win the Nathan's Famous Middletown, New York
regional hotdog
eating contest, qualifying him for the Nathan's Famous
Coney Island 4th of July Hotdog Eating Contest in Coney Island
where he finished 7th with 17 hotdogs.
Over the course of his career, he has held world records in doughnut
, hard-boiled egg, and corn on the cob
consumption. In addition to American events, Coondog has also traveled to Japan
for a Sushi
eating competition and to meet with Takeru Kobayashi
. He has been ranked as high as 14th in the world by the IFOCE.
In addition to these successes, however, there have been letdowns in his career. In 2002, he was disqualified from the 2002 Wing Bowl
after vomiting. He had eaten over 100 wings by that point. He eventually retired from Competitive Eating due to his family's concerns about its effect on his health.
In April 2006 Jason Fagone
's book on competitive eating, Horsemen of the Esophagus
, featured Coondog as one of three competitive eaters profiled in the book.
. The festival was held to honor local food innovators, Frank and Charles Menches, who claimed to have invented the hamburger
in 1885. The festival included a hamburger eating contest, which O'Karma won, by eating 4 and 1/2 double decker hamburgers in 8 minutes.
In 2002 he left the IFOCE after conflicts occurred with its owner, George Shea. He disagreed with IFOCE management regarding several issues, including concerns about the health and pay of competitive eaters. He later joined forces with a smaller Competitive Eating league, the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters
(AICE), which was established by his friend eater Arnie "Chowhound" Chapman. He now serves as the Director of Operations for the AICE.
and was raised in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
. He attended Kent State High School where he was a varsity swimmer. Coondog later attended Kent State University
has worked as a painter and construction contractor. He is married with two children.
Competitive eating
Competitive eating, or speed eating, is a sport in which participants compete against each other to consume large quantities of food in a short time period. Contests are typically less than 15 minutes in length, with the person consuming the most food being declared the winner...
champion, entertainer, and writer from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 49,374 people, 21,655 households, and 13,317 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,932.9 people per square mile . There were 22,727 housing units at an average density of 889.7 per square mile...
. He was formerly a member of the IFOCE, but is now the director of a Competitive Eating organization called the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters
Association of Independent Competitive Eaters
The Association of Independent Competitive Eaters is a competitive eating organization in the United States. It is run by competitive eaters and all proceeds and profits go to the founder of the organization. It was founded 2004 by competitive eaters Arnold Chapman and former IFOCE member...
(AICE).
Competitive Eating
He started competitive eating at age 15 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, at Church's ChickenChurch's Chicken
Church's Chicken is a US-based chain of fast food restaurants specializing in fried chicken, also trading outside North America as Texas Chicken. The chain was founded as Church's Fried Chicken To Go by George W. Church, Sr., on April 17, 1952, in San Antonio, across the street from The Alamo...
on Portage Trail. He ate 13 sweet potato
Sweet potato
The sweet potato is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the family Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting, tuberous roots are an important root vegetable. The young leaves and shoots are sometimes eaten as greens. Of the approximately 50 genera and more than 1,000 species of...
pies in one minute to become the WCUE
WCUE
WCUE is an AM radio station licensed to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, USA operating on 1150 kHz. It operates as a noncommercial educational station and serves the Akron, Ohio market. The station broadcasts the religious programming of Family Radio.-History:...
Sweet Potato Pie-eating Champion. From there he entered the Houlihan and Big Chuck Show's Pizza
Pizza
Pizza is an oven-baked, flat, disc-shaped bread typically topped with a tomato sauce, cheese and various toppings.Originating in Italy, from the Neapolitan cuisine, the dish has become popular in many parts of the world. An establishment that makes and sells pizzas is called a "pizzeria"...
Fight of the Century and became the only other person (besides Robert "Wild Mouth" Tilk) to defeat champion eater Mariano "Mushmouth" Pacetti.
On July 4, 1974, Coondog set his first world record by eating 45 hard-boiled eggs in 8 minutes and 10 seconds, becoming the WCUE Egg-Sucking Champion. Later that summer, at the Cuyahoga Falls Kid's Carnival, Coondog broke another Guinness world record by consuming 25 Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme
Krispy Kreme is the name of an international chain of doughnut stores that was founded by Vernon Rudolph in 1937 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The parent company of Krispy Kreme is Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc...
glazed doughnuts in 15 minutes. After this feat, he retired.
In 2001, Coondog O'Karma came out of a self-imposed retirement of 27 years to win the Nathan's Famous Middletown, New York
Middletown, Orange County, New York
Middletown is a city in Orange County, New York, United States. It lies in New York's Hudson Valley region, near the Wallkill River and the foothills of the Shawangunk Mountains. Middletown is situated between Port Jervis and Newburgh, New York. The city's population was 25,388 at the 2000 census...
regional hotdog
HotDog
HotDog is the name of the HTML web editing tool developed by Sausage Software in the mid-1990s. At the time of its development, there were only a small number of HTML editors available on the market and HotDog gathered significant interest from web users due to its ease of use and "What you see...
eating contest, qualifying him for the Nathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous is a company that operates a chain of U.S.-based fast food restaurants specializing in hot dogs. The original Nathan's restaurant stands at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in the Coney Island neighborhood of the New York City borough of Brooklyn.-History:Nathan's began as...
Coney Island 4th of July Hotdog Eating Contest in Coney Island
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
where he finished 7th with 17 hotdogs.
Over the course of his career, he has held world records in doughnut
Doughnut
A doughnut or donut is a fried dough food and is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased in bakeries, supermarkets, food stalls, and franchised specialty outlets...
, hard-boiled egg, and corn on the cob
Corn on the cob
Corn on the cob is a culinary term used for a cooked ear of freshly picked maize from a cultivar of sweet corn. The ear is picked while the endosperm is in the "milk stage" so that the kernels are still tender...
consumption. In addition to American events, Coondog has also traveled to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
for a Sushi
Sushi
is a Japanese food consisting of cooked vinegared rice combined with other ingredients . Neta and forms of sushi presentation vary, but the ingredient which all sushi have in common is shari...
eating competition and to meet with Takeru Kobayashi
Takeru Kobayashi
is a Japanese competitive eater. He held the world record for hot dog eating for nearly six years, and holds several other eating records, including four Guinness Records for hot dogs, meatballs, hamburgers, and pasta....
. He has been ranked as high as 14th in the world by the IFOCE.
In addition to these successes, however, there have been letdowns in his career. In 2002, he was disqualified from the 2002 Wing Bowl
Wing Bowl
Wing Bowl is an annual eating contest founded in 1993 by Philadelphia talk-radio hosts Angelo Cataldi and Al Morganti as a celebration of gluttony. The contest was first broadcast on WIP ....
after vomiting. He had eaten over 100 wings by that point. He eventually retired from Competitive Eating due to his family's concerns about its effect on his health.
In April 2006 Jason Fagone
Jason Fagone
Jason Fagone is an American journalist and author. His work has appeared in GQ Magazine, Esquire Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, and the New York Times, among other places. In 2002, Columbia Journalism Review named him among the “Ten Young Writers on the Rise”.His first book, Horsemen of the...
's book on competitive eating, Horsemen of the Esophagus
Horsemen of the Esophagus
Horsemen of the Esophagus by Jason Fagone is a nonfiction book about the sport of competitive eating and the outsized American appetite. Horsemen follows three American "gurgitators" during a year on the pro eating circuit: Ohio housepainter David "Coondog" O'Karma, South Jersey truck driver Bill...
, featured Coondog as one of three competitive eaters profiled in the book.
Writing
In addition to competitive eating, Coondog writes poetry and essays. In April 2004 Coondog published his first volume of poetry under the title "Wit and Whimsy of a White Trash Jesus." Several of his writings have won awards, including the Ohio Excellence in Journalism Awards first place in the Open Essay category.Event Promotion
In August 2006 Coondog co-hosted the The National Hamburger Festival in Akron, OhioAkron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
. The festival was held to honor local food innovators, Frank and Charles Menches, who claimed to have invented the hamburger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
in 1885. The festival included a hamburger eating contest, which O'Karma won, by eating 4 and 1/2 double decker hamburgers in 8 minutes.
In 2002 he left the IFOCE after conflicts occurred with its owner, George Shea. He disagreed with IFOCE management regarding several issues, including concerns about the health and pay of competitive eaters. He later joined forces with a smaller Competitive Eating league, the Association of Independent Competitive Eaters
Association of Independent Competitive Eaters
The Association of Independent Competitive Eaters is a competitive eating organization in the United States. It is run by competitive eaters and all proceeds and profits go to the founder of the organization. It was founded 2004 by competitive eaters Arnold Chapman and former IFOCE member...
(AICE), which was established by his friend eater Arnie "Chowhound" Chapman. He now serves as the Director of Operations for the AICE.
Personal life
Coondog was born in Akron, OhioAkron, Ohio
Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...
and was raised in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
As of the census of 2000, there were 49,374 people, 21,655 households, and 13,317 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,932.9 people per square mile . There were 22,727 housing units at an average density of 889.7 per square mile...
. He attended Kent State High School where he was a varsity swimmer. Coondog later attended Kent State University
Kent State University
Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...
has worked as a painter and construction contractor. He is married with two children.