The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

August 3, 2008

Cop wins doughnut-eating contest

Officer, civilians put stomachs to test at Blue Earth County Fair

By Mark Fischenich

GARDEN CITY — Travis Lapham of the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office provided a feel-good moment for people attending the Blue Earth County Fair Saturday.

For people suffering some guilt about eating the chili cheese fries at the 4-H stand or the deep-fried cheese curds at the snack wagon or the chili cheese fries and the deep-fried cheese curds, Lapham outdid them in calories and fat intake. And Lapham managed to do it in less than seven minutes.

“I feel really good right now,” Lapham said, just minutes after winning the doughnut-eating contest.

There was little indication — other than a quiet belch — that he’d just downed a dozen glazed doughnuts in six minutes and 30 seconds.

A water patrol officer, Lapham was the only law enforcement representative in a contest that was created about 10 years ago by the sheriff’s office but now is an open-class event. It started as a challenge by the sheriff’s office to the Mankato Department of Public Safety.

“They were less than enthused,” said Will Purvis, a retired deputy and investigator who’s now a county commissioner. “I don’t think they saw the humor in it that we did.”

The Mankato officers, in fact, refused to show up for a contest that played into the stereotype of the doughnut-eating cop.

But some Lake Crystal officers in the audience agreed to step in and wound up beating the deputies.

“We won the next three years in a row,” Purvis said.

One year, Lake Crystal sent its canine unit to the competition. The German shepherd didn’t win, however, as his human handler protected the well-trained crime-fighting asset from the threat of too many fat-pills.

“They let the deputies eat whatever they want, but the dog they have to protect,” laughed Paula Purvis, Will’s wife.

While the event is now open to civilians, Lapham made sure the law enforcement community continued to have doughnut-eating bragging rights. He attacked the doughnuts with a steady but relentless intensity even as eaters on his immediate left and right chewed to an early lead.

When Lapham finished his fourth doughnut, he’d topped the fat level of the chili cheese fries. When he swallowed his seventh, he’d surpassed the amount in a basket of cheese curds. When he took the final bite of No. 12, standing up and pushing both fists into the air in the universal pose of athletic triumph, he’d eaten the caloric equivalent of the chili cheese fries, the cheese curds and three and a half root beer floats — combined.

“I don’t think I’m going to eat any dinner,” said Lapham, who handed his $20 Kwik Trip gift certificate to second-place finisher Zach Carlson, 16, of Lake Crystal.

That meant the Carlson brothers had wracked up $35 in gift certificates after Alex Carlson, 15, won the kids’ division. In that preliminary event, Alex downed a half-dozen doughnuts.

Zach said he planned to use his certificate to buy gasoline, although his parents might be more inclined to use both certificates for food.

“They like to eat,” Karen Carlson said. “They’re always hungry.”

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