The 1970s Pizza Chain Known For Its Massive 52-Slice Challenge

It was 1971 when James Fox Jr. opened his first pizza restaurant in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, with $500 and used equipment saved from a scrapyard. He would eventually franchise his Fox's Pizza Den chain across 25 states and more than 200 shops. Back before Wolfgang Puck was making pizza hip, Fox was making strides with his forward thinking business acumen. He worked with Carnegie Mellon University to develop the first robotic pizza maker to help disabled franchisees run their own stores. He was also an early adopter of offering home delivery (Domino's was the first national chain to offer delivery in the early 1960s, along with inventing the pizza box as we know it).

Even with all these innovations, Fox's Pizza Den is probably best known today for its wild pizza challenge involving a giant pie known as "The Big One." The pizza is a whopping 30 inches in diameter and cut into 52 square slices. The challenge involves eating the entire pizza in 52 minutes or less (some franchises give you an hour in which to scarf it down). This behemoth can typically feed six people, but only teams of two are allowed to participate in the challenge. Even so, there have been some iron-stomached solo challengers who have actually won the contest.

Fox's Pizza Den's The Big One is really big. It's about equal to the size of an average round coffee table and weighs in at more than 8 pounds. The chain has been offering the challenge since at least 2008 and at some locations there have been multiple years without a winner. To make the challenge even harder, contestants have to choose one meat and two vegetable toppings or two meats or four veggies. Depending on the location, winners get the pizza, which costs around $60, for free, their name on the Wall of Fame, and get a free large pizza each month for a year.

Among the solo competitive eaters who have won is Molly Schuyler, who managed to finish off The Big One in 35 minutes and 6 seconds. While Fox's Pizza Den may not rate as the best pizza where it started in Pennsylvania — that honor goes to Badamo's Pizza in Pittsburgh based on various reviews — the chain's wild pizza challenge has earned it a place in the record books. If you're really hungry, or just naturally competitive, head over to one of many Fox's Pizza Dens and try your luck, and stomach, against The Big One.