Chicken boys win tickets

Students showed they'd do anything to get into the Duke-UNC basketball game during the "What Would You Do for Dook Tickets?" contest in the Pit on Wednesday that an estimated 1,000 people attended.

Sporting metallic purple wigs, feather boas, Speedos and plastic bird beaks, Josh Sharp and Robert Stephens "squawked" their way to Duke tickets after downing a mixture of raw eggs, feathers and leg hair - including inner thigh hair. They also swallowed gummy worms that were pre-chewed and spit directly into their mouths by audience members.

"It was disturbing on so many levels," freshman Andi Gardner said.

But competition was tough. The opposing team, of Jamie Reichlen, Ian Bracy, Anna Hay and Matt Hamrick, generated similar disgust from the crowd when they chugged a blend of raw fish, clam juice, Cheez Whiz, Pedigree wet dog food, raw eggs and tobacco dip spit.

"Oh my God that is foul," Student Body President Eve Carson said as a contestant made Carson smell the fish.

Carolina Fever President Kellan White, Carson and CAA President Colby Almond judged the event.

The competition could have been more outrageous, but some ideas didn't get approval from the dean of students, CAA Vice Chairman Graham Boone said. Initially, the fish eaten in the second act was going to be live. The bird boys were going to do a crotch milkshake, where they'd mix the ingredients in their swimsuits instead of a glass bowl.

The event has occurred on game day for at least the past eight years, said Jesse Soloff CAA special project chairman and event organizer. In previous years, contestants have consumed vomit omelettes and eaten wax paper laced with their own chest hair.

Coach Roy Williams made a short appearance at the beginning of the event to get students excited for Wednesday's game.

"After (Soloff) told me about shaving the hair and eating the stuff I figured I'd get out of here," Williams said.

The third group, which had planned to cover themselves in honey, Chex Mix and birdseed, never made their scheduled appearance.

Even so, students left the contest with dramatic images: the fish's head mangled by the blender, eggs smashed in fists, the bird boys slipping and falling on the rancid concoction.

"I feel stinky and disgusting," Reichlen said, as Cheez Whiz and raw fish dried on the back of his neck.

Although the group of four lost the competition, they were given two leftover Phase 1 tickets since the winning group had only two members. The losers joked that they'd have to share them, or cut them in half.

"It's just amazing to see how far people will go to be inside the Dean Dome," Soloff said.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.