"How Many Donut Holes Could You Eat in 3 Minutes." OK, so here's how it went down today at the first annual Doughnut Eating Contest outside the Donut Bank at Green River Road and Lloyd Expressway.
Twenty-six-old Jim "The Boston Nut" Maloney ate 44 donut balls in 3 minutes and beat 22 other contestants — from a burly motorcycle rider named "Tiny" and a 45-year-old Green Bay Packer fan from Kenosha, Wis., to a pair of rail-thin college coeds.
The $1,000 prize money went to Maloney's favorite charity, United Way. But here's the kicker.
Maloney, an employee of Gibson General Hospital in Princeton, Ind., and a fan of the Boston Red Sox, thought he was losing.
"The girl across from me (USI student Katie Henderson, nicknamed The Birthday Girl because Friday was her 20th birthday) had accidentally dumped a bunch of her doughnuts on the ground, but I didn't know that. I was trying to catch up with her. I thought she was way ahead."
Like many of the contestants, Maloney smashed each yeasty ball "to eliminate the air," then swallowed hefty bites with gulps of milk.
The event was cosponsored by radio station WSTO-FM as part of a promotion to celebrate Donut Bank's 40th anniversary.
Company president Chris Kempf said his father, Harold, started Donut Bank in "a little bitty place next to Pigeon Creek on First Avenue in 1967," a building that eventually began sliding toward the creek.
"My grandpa had delivered bread and my dad always wanted a doughnut shop. He came up with the name Donut Bank. He thought it was the coolest name. You could easily play on words, like 'Our dividend to you is quality' and "Your interest is in our product.'"
Harold Kempf, no longer running the business, started with a dozen or so varieties of doughnuts and created his own unique Fruit Fritter using chopped pecans, apples, some orange and cinnamon.
"Today the business (the 8th local shop is under construction and there are plans for two more) has evolved," said Chris Kempf. "Now there's cappuccinos, lattes, ice-blended drinks, cakes, bagels and gourmet coffees."
But the No. 1 seller remains the simple glazed doughnut.
Bill Lynch, an assistant cheerleading coach in town from Wisconsin for a competition, said he heard about the contest on radio and was prepared to donate his winnings to USI Habitat for Humanity, which is helping build a subdivision for victims of Evansville's 2005 tornado.
"I have doughnuts every single day," the 45-year-old Lynch quipped."But if this were beer I'd be in better shape."
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