Cut and pasted from the restaurant's website: The Corner Bar

The Corner Bar's Hot Dog Hall of Fame was established in 1968. Since then, more than 5,000 names have been added to the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. Our longest-reigning champion was Sharon VanDuinen who ate 42 ½ chili dogs in the four-hour time allotment in March 1982 - a record that stood for 23 years.

In December 2005, Balinda Gould gulped down 43 hot dogs to pass Sharon and be crowned our Amateur Champion. Then in March 2006, a number of competitors from the International Federation of Competitive Eating descended to take on what is perhaps the world's only chili-dog competition. Tim Janus beat out Joey Chestnut, Patrick Bertoletti and Hall Hunt to eat 43 1/2 dogs and become the reigning Professional Champion.

The rules are simple. Eat 12 hot dogs with at least our special chili sauce in one four-hour sitting and YOU will become a member of the Hot Dog Hall of Fame. Eat 20 chili dogs in the four-hour time period and the dogs are on us.

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I LOVE this place. It'd be so cool to see it featured on Man V. Food! Hope to see you in Rockford, Adam!

i live in grand rapids, mi and if man vs food shows at the corner bar ill be there although i am partial to yesterdog cause i grew up down the street from there, but i would love to have man vs food right here in good old michigan cause this state isnt that bad

When Sharon Van Duinen (then Sharon Scholten) broke the Corner Bar record by eating 43 chili dogs at a body weight of 110 pounds in 1982, she did it with no preparation whatsoever. From

http://web.archive.org/web/20030505015605/www.rockfordc...rbar.com/record.html

quote:

Saturday looked to be a normal day until her brother-in-law Jimmy Scholten suggested that she try for the record

That was after she had eaten lunch - a Mexican pizza for two, a half order of nachos, four baskets of chips and an enchilada.

But she thought she'd give it a try. After all, she met the woman's mark two years ago by swallowing 20 franks. And there wasn't much else to do that night.

"We were just talking about it that afternoon," she said, "It wasn't something I planned. I didn't think I could do it. But Jimmy told me he had bet $600 that I could do it so I thought I'd better try."

It turns out Jimmy had no money riding on her meal, but his white lie was enough to get Sharon to break the record

Sharon is still on the cover of the bar's menu:

http://rockfordcornerbar.com/documents/CBMenu2008May_002.pdf

Sharon apparently had a nuclear level metabolism when she broke the record over 25 years ago. It would be interesting to learn if she retains it.