Throwback: Alferd Packer Days
In 1968, CU students humorously voted to rename the University Memorial Center’s dining center after Alferd Packer — Colorado’s only convicted cannibal — but their jokes didn’t stop there. That year, the CU Program Council hosted the first Alferd Packer Day, a campus event dedicated to eating in honor of the hungry criminal.
For nearly 30 years, hundreds of students gathered in the Alferd Packer Grill each spring to watch students compete in timed eating competitions. Competitors wolfed down everything from raw meat to 14-pound pizzas to barbecue ribs to 24- feet subs.
Arthur Ingraham, the former director of food services and organizer of the celebration, described the activities as “essentially gorge and public contests” in a 1982 issue of the Harvard Crimson. He added: “The students stuff themselves until they throw up.”
The festivities also included live music performances from a variety of bands, a retelling of Alferd Packer’s infamous story and an Alferd Packer lookalike contest. The Program Council also sold witty T-shirts sporting sayings like “Eat Me,” “What’s Been Eating at You Lately?” and “Alferd Packer — A Man After Your Own Heart.”
While the gluttonous jubilee garnered some controversy (critics called it “disgusting,” “grotesque” and “degenerate”), and it eventually halted in 1997 due to declining interest, the Alferd Packer Days are remembered as a fun twist on a dark story.
“Alferd G. Packer, Colorado’s very own convicted cannibal, would probably have been proud of these kids today,” said Lisa Allen, a former 9News correspondent, in a 1982 broadcast covering the event. “Not only because they were commemorating him with every ounce of intestinal fortitude they could muster, but because they were really just out to have a great time in his name and in his honor.”
Photos courtesy of the 1985 Coloradan yearbook