When Columbus devoured the world's largest pizza

Columbus pizza lovers once devoured a record-setting pie so big not even Joey Chestnut could've handled it.

Flashback: On July 4, 1974, hundreds gathered in Clintonville Park to gobble up the "world's largest pizza" at the time — as confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records.

By the numbers: Nine local pizza parlors worked together on the charity project, which took 50 minutes to bake in separate sections and another hour to assemble into one culinary behemoth.

• The pie measured 31 feet across and consisted of 471 pounds of dough, 222 pounds of tomato sauce, 291 pounds of cheese and 75 pounds of pepperoni.

What they said: "I don't know about stomach aches," pizza assembler Brad Louis told an AP reporter. "I just know it was there and then it was gone."

State of play: The world's largest pizza record has since been smashed, most recently by an Italian group who prepared a 13,580-square-foot gluten-free pizza in 2012.

• For reference, that's bigger than an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Our take: Columbus pizzerias need to get this record back to Ohio where it belongs.

• Just please, please don't make it an Ohio Valley-style pizza.