Joe Delaney and hot dogs

On July 4 on national TV, Patrick Bertoletti ate 49 hot dogs and honored the memory of NSU great Joe Delaney.

Wearing a white headband with "Joe Delaney" written on it, and also sporting a big Mohawk haircut, Bertoletti won third place in the July 4 Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs eating contest televised live nationally on ESPN from Coney Island.

All the attention was on the epic battle for the win between American Joey Chestnut (66 dogs in 12 minutes) and six-time champ Takeru Kobayashi, but once administrative assistant Ronnie Pellegrin and her hubby Dr. Charles spotted Bertoletti and called me, I kept pining for shots of the third place diner.


Bertoletti, of Chicago, may be a Kansas City Chiefs fan. I tried to find out Thursday, but the public relations firm handling the Nathan's contest was too swarmed with media dealing with the top two showdown that I haven't heard anything yet.

So I can only surmise that like so many other Americans, he wanted to pay his respects to Joe Delaney, and had a national stage.

The 21-year-old, just 180-pounder is a competitive eater (you can Google him!) who has corned beef, pizza, chocolate, ice cream, jalopenos, Shoo-Fly Pie and whole turkey to his credit just last year alone. That's according to his official profile on the International Federation of Competitive Eating.

Bertoletti's slogan, according to the website, is "I believe children are our future." Considering Joe D. tried to save three drowning kids in 1983, and helped one to survive before he and the two other boys perished, I guess maybe Bertoletti doesn't have to be a Chiefs fan to want to honor a true American (and Demons) hero on one of our nation's most patriotic days.

Unveiling the Top 100 was a blast

The fireworks went off before the sun was up for NSU fans on July 4, 2007.

Unveiling the Top 100 Players in Demon Football History was a blast. It got extra sparkle thanks to the webmaster of www.nsudemons.com, NSU graduate Luke Brouillette, who works at CP-Tel of Natchitoches, the official web provider for NSU Athletics.

If this sounds like a commercial, I'm sorry. It's a tip of a cap to a guy, and a company, who have been behind the scenes supporting NSU Athletics and providing us a unique web home.

Luke's latest step on the extra mile path came before most of us were stirring on one of the most stirring days of the year.

He was up and at 'em early before dawn today, putting in motion a flash page introduction featuring the Top 100 collage of the head shots, from their college days, of the 100 players selected by fan vote and a blue-ribbon committee as the best in the 100 years of NSU Demon football.

Thanks, Luke! Also, gratitude goes to Brian Seiler, Matthew Bonnette and Sonny Carter.

Seiler, an intern in the athletic department and SID office, did countless hours of research over the past four months to provide the foundation for the Top 100 selection process and then to locate many of the pictures you will see of the honorees.

Bonnette, our multi-talented assistant SID, came to me about six weeks ago with the idea of putting the head shots of the Top 100 on the cover of the 2007 media guide. I just didn't get what he was pitching, but as it came together, I realized once again, Matt hit it out of the park. What a great concept, and executed brilliantly by Mr. Bonnette! He, too, did an incredible amount of digging around to collect photos of each of the 100 -- from their college careers at Normal/NSC/NSU.

There, he got a big assist from Watson Library archivist and all-around great guy Sonny Carter, somebody who truly appreciates photography. Take a look at his website, www.sonc.com, and you'll enjoy his talents behind a camera.

Take a look at what we're calling for today's purposes the "Top 100 Collage" of the 100 head shots, and you'll enjoy the fruits of his research. Sonny helped locate many of the photos used in the collage that will indeed be the cover of our 2007 football media guide when it comes out July 24.

Of course, there was the usual helping hand from NSU photographer Gary Hardamon and his predecessor, Don Sepulvado.

All so we could have a special Independence Day celebration of NSU football history. Thanks, guys!

Doug Ireland, SID