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Ladd invades Japan to wrestle, famine likelyBy JERRY IZENBERGNEW YORK — Beat it out in Morse code with a set of ivory chop-sticks. Spread the word through a maze of tender rice shoots where men and women in wide-brimmed hats wade ankle-deep in water bringing home the harvest. Race to the jagged shoreline and shout it into the wind after the departing Japanese tuna fleet. Whisper the news into the icy chill of every frozen food locker behind every Ginza restaurant.Fair warning is the very least we can dofor the country which has become one of our major Asian allies.Ladd***FOR A NUMBER OF SEASONS, Mr. Ladd was an American Football League tackle of violent stature ... a giant of a bonecrusher who, in the early days of that social set, was one of its first super stars. In the twilight of his career, when his kneesfinally surrendered under the burden ofcarrying around 320 pounds, Ernest turned to theatrics. He joined the honest wrestlersas a villain of consummate rage.Now he is in Japan and the word filtering back is that he has become the biggest,baddest attraction to sweep through the country since the Sioux Nation threatened to overwhelm Randolph Scott on the silver screens of Tokyo. Osaka and Yokohama, complete with Japanese subtitles.But sing no sad song for the honest wrestlers of the home side. Armed withkarate, jiujitsu, assorted other martial arts, a verbose home crowd and a favoring script, one suspects they will be able to take care of themselves.If you have tears, then save them for the guys who stock the free lunch counters in random watering places in Ropongi, Shimbashi and Shinjuku. Mr. Ladd may have been an all-league tackle. He may now be an interhemispheric wrestler. But when it comes to flat out eating, then Mr. Ladd is all-world and in head-to-head competition nothing this side of the combined stomachs of all of Uruguay has the remotest shot at coming close.**HE ESTABLISHED himself very early in the game. In his rookie season at San Diego, he wandered into a syrup haven called Pancake House where an eating contest was in progress. Since he arrived a half-hourafter the starting gun, he was 53 pancakes behind before he sat down. This situation was further complicated by the fact that he wras the only solo entry in a competition for bo-y-girl couples. He ate 129 and finished second.The following year, however, Mr. Ladd established a record which since has only been threatened once . . . and that by a starving wolfpack in Northern Siberia. In the grand ballroom of San Diego’s U.S.Grant Hotel, Ernie Ladd won the world’s heavyweight eating championship.His opponent was a carnivorous fisherman named Nick Cordileone, who was a svelte 5-8, 268-pound receptacle, brought his own attending physician and had the added advantage of liberally lubricating his assault with large doses of red wine. He wasbilled as the heavyweight eating championof the Southern Pacific Tuna Fleet.Ladd chose several oceans of a soft drink as his beverage. Consequently, he marched into battle that night for God, country and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. The bicarbonate of soda people, assured of victory in any event, remained happily neutral.It was man against man and the deviltake him who belched first.It was what Ernie Ladd later called “a simple, basic menu.” It consisted of two lobster tails, a green salad, two whole chickens, a portion of prime ribs, steak, a huge platter of spaghetti with meat balls,ice cream and cake.Mr. Ladd won by three ounces. Hisportion came to exactly nine pounds. It alsocame to 27,000 calories, which some saidwas enough to maintain East Berlin on amarginal diet for a month. Although therewere no knockdowns, Ernie did manage tostagger Mr. Cordileone several times bythreatening to eat the lobster shells.* * *•THAT WAS ROUGHLY seven years ago. Nobody has been foolish enough to challengeErnie Ladd since then.Of course it should be noted that at the time he was still a football player. ‘‘When I eat,” he said at the time, “I still have to remember to keep myself in shape.”Ernie doesn’t have to remember thatanymore.Care Packages should be addressed directly to the Japanese public.
Newspaper Details
Kenosha News
Kenosha, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Nov 06, 1971
Page 14
Full Page
Clipped by
Uw -.
WI, USA 27 Jul 2022
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