From the archives: Students gulp down schools of goldfish

Santa Ana College students gulped down fish for fame and glory, until a controversy over the ethics of the event swallowed them whole.

An el Don staffer came across a video of Santa Ana College’s 1979 goldfish-eating competition from @VoiceoftheStreetz and @HoodHistorian562 on Instagram recently.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQP9srSErUH

Santa Ana College stood out among other community colleges in the late ’70s and early ’80s for the challenge, long before social media and the internet existed where dangerous challenges like the tide pod challenge were all the rage.

What was originally just a small homecoming vote campaign ended with divisive debates and a quiet cancellation, but not before SAC students gulped their way into the headlines with contest victories.

The goldfish-gulping trend originally started in 1939 when Lothrop Withington, Jr., a Harvard University freshman, swallowed a live goldfish while trying to become class president. Media outlets covered his stunt and it led to a trend at other universities throughout the United States, where the record eventually climbed all the way up to 101 goldfish swallowed.

In the 1950s, the stunt was prevalent enough that Massachusetts State Senator George Krapf filed a bill in the state legislature to attempt to end the practice.

Fast-forward to 1975, when SAC held its 60th homecoming bash. That’s when the first iteration of the contest was held. Student Dave Young downed 325 live goldfish in ten minutes, smashing the previous world record by 100 goldfish, and finishing just one fish over runner-up Gary Maund. The crowd of 1,500 went berserk as Young pocketed $100, around $600 now, and the legend was born.

Young’s world record achievement just so happened to coincide with another world record also at SAC.

His sister Di Anne Young kept the stakes high the next year, taking the world record from her brother with 353 goldfish swallowed in 10 minutes.

The contest returned in 1977 with Lilburn De Hut takes the crown with a stunning 475 in seven minutes. That’s over 67 fish per minute. Runners-up Dan Andrus and Tom Gadzinski reached 420 and 413.

In 1979, as seen in the recently resurfaced video, Ron Ford swallowed 289 goldfish, more than any other competitor that year, winning the grand prize of $100 (over $450 in 2025).

But the party was dying. Some students and faculty fumed against it. Political science professor David Hartman said in a letter to the editor in the Nov. 7, 1980 issue of el Don: “Why shouldn’t we tell everyone that we do not want to see this activity on our college calendar — ever again?”

In another letter to the editor in that issue, four students came together to voice their opinions on goldfish eating. “[SAC administration] okay’d a merciless killing of hundreds of goldfish as a “celebration.” What were they celebrating? Is man’s cruelty and destruction to his environment cause for celebration?”

The fun officially came to an end following the 1980 competition. After one last $100 prize and one last wave of hate mail, the competition faded back into obscurity at SAC. There was no formal announcement of its conclusion and it was quietly dropped from any future homecoming celebrations.

So, obviously, do not try this at home.