Ohio State University students scoff down chicken nuggets at the 1,000 chicken nugget event hosted by Phi Sigma Kappa. Credit: Faith Schneider | Arts & Life Photo Editor
Hundreds of flyers are scattered across campus, typically promoting the same types of events: upcoming concerts, paid studies and student activities.
But this week, one flyer stood out from the rest.
For some, it brought no more than a chuckle. For others, it was a call to action.
“COME EAT 1000 CHICKEN NUGGETS” lined the top, followed by an image of a large chicken nugget platter and a QR code. The event took place at the Oval on Wednesday at 2 p.m.
“[There’s] no rhyme or reason, I just figured it’s such an absurd idea for an event,” Brent Campbell, president of Phi Sigma Kappa — the fraternity that organized the event — said in an email. “Who would see a flyer that says ‘COME EAT 1000 CHICKEN NUGGETS’ the first week of school and NOT go to it!?”
Though Campbell said other PSK chapters host nugget challenges for rush week, this one was intended to be a campus-wide spectacle.
“Instead of having people go up, grab a plate of nuggets, then leave, we thought it would make for a much better event if people were watching others eat nuggets,” Campbell said. “To do this, people signed a waiver to enter the queue, then we called up groups of 4 people to compete. Each group got 3 minutes to eat as many nuggets as possible while wearing chicken hats.”
Colin Lakin, a second-year psychology student who transferred to the Columbus campus from Newark this semester, came across the flyer and decided to spend a solid six minutes Wednesday downing nugget after nugget.
“I ate a lot,” Lakin said in an email. “Around 45 or so, because they needed help getting to 1,000.”
The process continued until all 1,000 nuggets were consumed. Campbell said the nuggets were Tyson brand — including one bag of Dino nuggets — and purchased in bulk from Sam’s Club for $153. From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., PSK members baked the nuggets in their home ovens.
Ohio State University students scoff down chicken nuggets at the 1,000 chicken nugget event hosted by Phi Sigma Kappa. Credit: Faith Schneider | Arts & Life Photo Editor
According to an Instagram story post by PSK, the nuggets were eaten in 92 minutes, averaging a rate of 632 eaten per hour.
Lakin participated in two rounds of the eating challenge.
“The first time [the chicken nuggets] were actually pretty good and still warm,” Lakin said. “The second round they were getting cold and not so good. I got some Dino nuggets, too, which were way bigger, so they were harder to eat.”
Campbell said the nuggets were not consumed dry — PSK provided two bottles of ranch, two bottles of Chick-fil-a sauce, one bottle of honey mustard and one bottle of ketchup.
Lakin said he used a lot of honey mustard while he participated.
Campbell said he was inspired by the “Cheeseball Man” event that took place in New York City in 2024, where hundreds of people gathered to watch one man in an orange mask consume an entire jar of cheese balls.
The event is also part of the fraternity’s “silly week,” Campbell said.
“Shoutout to Brent [Campbell] for putting on a fun little event! I just started my first semester here at OSU main so this was a fun welcome week experience,” Lakin said.
