Nathan's 'Wall of Fame' Changes Upset Legends

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - Food lovers live to eat, but there are legendary "Wall of Famers" on Coney Island who have been known for eating large amounts of food competitively for decades.

Visitors to Nathan's in Brooklyn, N.Y., who were used to seeing familiar faces on the "Wall of Fame" for eating legends, will notice some new characters painted on the wall mural.

According to AOL News , with one month to go before the 2010 competitive eating event – Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest – many of the infamous competitors are no longer commemorated.

"I'm very disappointed," admitted one of the eating legends, Ed "Cookie" Jarvis, who set 31 eating records before he retired from the contest four years ago. "They took us off the wall without even calling us first."

Meanwhile, the president of the International Federation of Competitive Eating , George Shea, defended the move: "I hate to come off as the Simon Cowell of competitive eating, but many of these eaters don't belong on the Wall of Fame. They're not famous anymore. That's the truth. Time marches on, and it's not going to sit there and wait for these guys."

But to continue to honor the sport's top performers, Shea said he is thinking about commemorating the legendary athletes with awards called The Tummys.

Though, according to the Brooklyn Paper , the only thing that will appease the outraged competitors is a "true Hall of Fame which serves as a bedrock upon which the foundation of our collective memory is built."