At a South Philly eating competition in which the likes of “Mo Greene” were carted around the arena on a massage table with an entourage of Mafia men and the legendary El Wingador was carried on a royal pedestal with a king’s crown, one of the University’s own legends made a notable appearance.

Douglas Petock, more affectionately know as the light-saber wielding “Mendel Doug,” has made a lasting impression at the University over the past few years.

Under the stage name “Obe Wing Kanobi,” Petock participated in the 13th annual Wing Bowl run by Philadelphia sports radio station 610 WIP and talk-show host Angelo Cataldi last Friday, after being chosen with 28 other competitors for the wing-eating contest.

Making use of the assertiveness he learned from rugby and water polo, Petock took his talents to WIP sports talk show host Howard Eskin in the Wachovia Center parking lot prior to an Eagles game one December Sunday.

To impress Eskin and show him his gastronomical skills, Petock “devoured cockroaches with style” and thus gained a spot on the Wing Bowl squad.

At the Wing Bowl, the Wachovia Center sell-out crowd of 23,000 Eagles fans saw Petock, a.k.a. Obe Wing Kanobi, burst through an aluminum foil wall with cape on and light saber in hand, followed by an entourage of University supporters.

The entrance was a “spectacular portrayal of good vs. evil with good prevailing – the Patriots went down,” Petock said of the Star Wars style attack he laid on his fellow Patriot-posing rugby brethren entered in the contest.

With odds of nearly 75-1, though an underdog, Petock performed brilliantly, eating 61 wings in 20 minutes, just barely missing the cutoff for the next half. The highest number wings eaten in the first half was 74.

In the end, El Wingador, a previous four-time winner who came out of retirement to defeat the Virginian Sonya Thomas, or the Black Widow, won in overtime by eating 162 wings in 46 minutes.

Though determined to win, Petock did not seem to mind the loss as he blithely socialized with press and fans afterwards at the stadium.

In a fitting end, Petock climbed into a decorative hot tub flanked by plastic palm trees to represent the Jacksonville, Florida location of the Super Bowl, and relaxed as beer cups and other concession trash were playfully showered around him.