1939: MIT’s Goldfish Swallowing Champ

This fall, sushi is advertised on the menu of the five MIT dorms with dining plans for freshman and sophomore residents. However, raw fish of a different sort attracted big crowds on campus 70 years ago.

According to The Tech of March 31, 1939, Albert Hayes Jr. ’42 claimed for MIT the “new world’s record for piscine deglutition” and honored his class by swallowing 42 goldfish.  A large crowd on the previous night watched him in the commuter students’ 5:15 Club room as he exceeded the previous record of 36, set by a Northeastern student.

In an elaborate fish-by-fish summary, The Tech reporter noted, “The first few fish went down rather easily—with the aid of dashes of salt. After about the first 10, Hayes had more trouble, and resorted to copious drinks of his chocolate soda chaser. Every 10 that went down received a bounteous applause from the audience and on the tying and winning swallows, Hayes brought down the house.”

Clearly this was not an easy feat. Hayes eventually “resorted to gravity to aid him in downing the slimy fellows. He would tilt his head back, open his face as wide as it would go, and drop in the lively goldfish. For perhaps 10 seconds his body would seem to relax. There would then be violent vacillations of the Adam's apple, followed by contortions of the esophagus. A burp might or might not come after the oscillations.”

Once he surpassed the previous record, the new Intercollegiate Goldfish Swallowing Champion “was fed the 41st fish by the president of the Class of 1941, John B. Murdock, who nearly ate one himself. The 42nd and last was dropped in Hayes' mouth by Miss Ida Rovno '39.”

Elsewhere in the March 31 The Tech, the champion himself wrote, “Some of my friends challenged me to do it. I thought it was a good joke, but after the first goldfish I decided it wasn’t…. The only immediate discomfort is a terrific strain on the throat muscles, which seems to be the limiting factor. Afterwards, though, there is a terrifically slimy taste, like a hangover, only different. All that I wanted to do was to prove that a Tech man can beat anybody at their own game. If a Harvard man can down four goldfish, surely a Tech man can do him ten times better.”

After all that, the glory proved ephemeral. The April 4, 1939, Tech noted, “Latest reports have the record in this contest as 89, a number that dims by far what was thought a ‘sensational feat’ performed last week by the Institute champion, Albert E. Hayes, Jr. ’42.”