Hunka hunka burning steak
by Brian Abrams, Reporter

    A history field trip usually brings images of historical markers and tedious lectures, but participating in David Clinkscale's 23rd annual field trip provided a lesson on consuming 72 ounces of Texas beef.
    The Big Texan, Amarillo's finest tourist attraction restaurant, remains infamous for its "free" 72-ounce beefsteak dinner.
    Of course, the establishment considers the meal "free" if, and only if, the patron finishes all four and a half pounds of meat within one hour, not to mention the salad, baked potato, shrimp cocktail and dinner roll.
    Otherwise, the gluttonous customer must foot the bill, approximately $55.
    Gabe Hogan, 20, learned of the restaurant's proposition and immediately signed up for it.
    "A lot of people might find this really intimidating. All of these huge people probably come in and try to eat it," he said. "But I don't care. Sometimes you have to stand up and do what you have do, and I decided I was doing this."
    The restaurant staff set up a table with a white tablecloth at the head of the dining room, for every patron to view in either amazement or disgust.
    Six minutes into the meal, Hogan tossed his silverware and began tearing into his entree with his bare hands.
    Hogan later explained his "fly by the seat of his pants" strategy.
    "You know, the cutting and forking the meat just took too long, man. I needed to eat and eat at a consistent pace," he said. "The formalities were slowing me down, so what's the difference? I looked disgusting anyway."
    With a hand towel from his hotel room draped across his shoulders, Hogan barbarically worked his way through the side dishes as well as the main course.
    Shoveling fistfuls of salad, potato and sirloin, Hogan began to conquer his massive portions until he met a dehydrated serving of beef.
    "That fourth steak was just too dry. It wasn't that I could not handle any more meat in my stomach, but that meat tasted like leather. I couldn't get it down my throat."
    After 46 minutes, Hogan's gorging triumph came to a halt. He pushed his chair from the dining table and rested against the back of his chair.
    Even though Hogan surrendered to a shameful failure, 55 students who attended Clinkscale's trip ripped out in applause and a standing ovation for Hogan's valiant effort.
    "I thought for sure Gabe had it," Jeremy Spann, South student, said. "Then again, he did choke down that steak pretty fast at the beginning, and that was probably his downfall. I am still proud of him though."
    Clinkscale, associate professor and department chair for political science, was also impressed.
    "No one in my class has tried the 72-ounce [steak] in 10 years," he said. "It was amazing. I'll have to put the pictures up on my Web site."
    The Big Texan claims the record for the fastest 72-ounce meal eaten is approximately 9 minutes. A baseball player, one manager said, had topped his steak with all of his side dishes, including his shrimp cocktail. He then proceeded to wrap the steak up in his hands like a taco, and he swallowed the entire meal in very few bites.
    Another patron of The Big Texan ate two full orders of the gargantuan meal in one hour as well.
    Having devoured all of the side items and approximately 60 ounces of steak, Hogan's appetite diminished for the remainder of the trip.
    "I didn't want to make the trip unpleasant for my roommates," he said.
    "Besides, I really enjoyed the experience. I've never [had] so many people taking pictures of me at once. It felt like a press conference or something," he said.