Within 15 minutes, contestants dropped out one-by-one from the pepper-eating competition at the Residence Hall Association and Association of Students of the University of Nebraska's joint homecoming tailgate Sunday night.
"You can't quit!" yelled someone in the crowd, as his competing friend's eyes began to water.
Inspired by this year's homecoming opponent's mascot, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's cayenne pepper, RHA and ASUN included the contest in their first collaborative event.
"We're starting with bell peppers and going all the way to Thai and habanero," said Craig Lennon, UNL's assistant director of residence life student leadership.
A few hundred students came out for the tailgate, Lennon said, beating the attendance at RHA's solo homecoming event last year.
Last night's tailgate was open to all UNL students. The crowd was about half greek members — who could get homecoming points for attendance — half non-greeks, said Drew Cuiffo, a junior nutrition and exercise major and chair of the committee of events.
Many greek attendees heard about the event through their fraternities and sororities and came in an effort to get a head start on points to kick off homecoming week.
Mike O'Connell, freshman accounting major, found out about the tailgate in an e-mail from his fraternity.
"(They are) trying to get all the freshmen involved as much as we could," O'Connell said. "I'm excited, especially because it's the 300th sellout. It's going to be big."
Organizers got help from Husker Athletics, Campus Rec, UNL Dining Services and Watt Systems for the tailgate. Attendees got to play games, bounce on inflatables, eat free food, dunk ASUN external vice president and homecoming royalty candidate Amanda Crook, a senior political science major, and watch Kansas City band Pomeroy.
"Free food, the music — everything like that brings it all together," said Lee Running, a senior industrial engineering major and a second-year RHA senator.
About halfway through the event, many of the students crowded around the free food and pepper-eating contests, one for greeks and one for students in residence halls and recognized student organizations.
The winner of the greek contest was a last-minute sign-up, freshman architecture major Jacob Schumacher. Schumacher grew up with spicy foods and his dad's homemade salsa.
Even after his victory and a few cartons of milk to calm the burn, Schumacher said he was going to have a salsa party that night. Although he joined the competition with short notice, Schumacher said he knew he would at least make it to the top two.
"I was going to keep going till I threw up on the table — and I almost did with the last one," he said.
andreavasquez@dailynebraskan.com
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