Community Corner

Rick "The Manager" Russo Named Mr. Patch 2011

The competitive eater out of Royersford will be participating in his fourth consecutive WIP Wing Bowl on Friday, but also does good in the community. Your votes named him Mr. Patch 2011!

Most people who are tuned in to Patch, and have been for quite some time, may only know Rick Russo as the guy who put his Christmas lights up in weather this past summer to lure in the cool air. Others may only know him because he provided his house as the venue for Patch's contest, or for the host of competitive eaters he hangs with, such as - a Royersford resident who is a part of Major League Eating.

So, when Russo was deemed the winner in the polls to be named , some people may have been shocked. Russo earned 1,024 votes of the 1,679 votes cast, but even he was surprised.

"I really am honored for this Mr. Patch and that people took enough interest in voting for me," Russo said. "Again, I’m just baffled why, when I’m up against the and the guy who coordinated . But, anybody I talk to tells me it’s important to laugh. I can make people laugh, but those people are really doing important things."

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Russo has a lot of connections, both locally, throughout the state of Pennsylvania, and across the country. But, when you sit down to talk to Russo, you'll quickly know he's fully devoted to Montgomery County. He owns his own , which has served the 422 corridor from Norristown to Pottstown for the past 25 years.

"All of my customers are my friends in the business world and I would do anything for them," he said. "It’s hard to get away in the summer and winter, but I feel like I owe it to the people who are depending on me no matter what I’m doing."

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And for those who may have second thoughts about Russo deserving the award, you may not have known how deeply connected he is with your local responders.

"He's not a member of any of the local fire departments, but they all know him and know that if they need anything he’d be there in a second," said Russo's wife Sherri, who participated in the Mrs. Collegeville 2010 pageant. "He digs out fire hydrants if they’re covered in snow, salts pavements and plows driveways for the police and fire companies when it snows. He's always there for them."

Russo assisted in a fatal fire in Collegeville a few years ago and was recognized by the state of Pennsylvania with Good Samaritan and Humanitarian honors from the senator. He also aids a local funeral home in moving bodies in the middle of the night and used to help DeWane's Garage tow vehicle accidents in Montgomery County. Also a thing of the past for Russo is high school girls basketball coaching (Perkiomen Valley, assistant varsity, head junior varsity), which he retired from nine years ago. He has been refereeing games in the PAC-10 since then.

"I’m one of those people that honest to God when you hear people say 'I work hard and I play harder,'" he said. "All of my obligations are taken care of. Everything we have to do gets done and then I take that time and go out and do these things."

It's the norm for Rick and Sherri to be doing things that are outside of the norm. Russo is a competitive eater as well as a manager for competitive eating ventures. He surrounds himself with eating greats like Joey Chestnut, who downed 68-and-a-half hot dogs at Nathan's Fourth of July contest and is helping Russo train for his next big contest - this year's Wing Bowl.

This year marks the 20th anniversary for the Sports Radio WIP event. Russo will face off against greats like Takeru Kobayashi, Gentleman Jerry, El Wingador, The Freak of Nature and Nick Papagiorgio. Although Russo knows he won't be in contention in the eating contest, he prides himself on showmanship. His float, he said, could win him 12 trips to Cancun. The float will be top secret until the day of, but Russo is expecting big things from his performance this year and had a little something to say for some of his opponents.

"The last two years, the Freak of Nature won the floats," he said. "He won because a guy by the name of Nick Papagiorgio helped him build his float. Well, now Nick Papagiorgio and Freak of Nature are both eating, so they have split. I’m expecting a half a float out of each of those two guys!"

Russo will be playing double duty at this year's Wing Bowl, as an eater and a manager. He'll be managing Stephanie Torres, formerly representing MLE, now independent. Torres hails from New Mexico and will be under the name of Chilita for the contest. Russo said she will certainly be a competitor in the eating. Wing Bowl is this Friday and will kick off at 6 a.m.

Overall, Russo said Sherri is very supportive of all of the ideas he gets when it comes to Wing Bowl and beyond.

"My eating slogan is 'Eat each meal like it’s your last,'" he said. "I take it from 'Live each day like it’s your last,' which we do. My wife had cancer several years ago. We were going out to Hershey Medical Center for her treatments and all that. We were taking these long trips. So, in order to break up the monotony, we’d always take a side trip on the way home. Whether if we drove through the back roads of Lancaster, or went to see the Strasburg Railroad or any of those things – just something different to take away from it.

"We started seeing things like that. As we started researching more and seeing things on TV, we wanted to do things that were not mainstream. Going to Punkin Chunkin in Southern Delaware. Sherri looked into running in the pageant. Sherri does pageants and I do competitive eating. She looked into pageants at this but she wasn’t eligible because we lived in Pennsylvania. They had a cooking contest, and we were going to just look behind the scenes, and Sherri ended up making the award-winning pumpkin roll. It’s just about doing things the every day person wouldn’t do all the time. Even on Patch, you coming out and looking at some yo-yo who decided to put up Christmas lights trying to lure in cold weather when it was 105-plus degrees."


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