Man Gives 7,777 Hugs in 24 Hours

A 51-year-old Ohio man has embraced the Valentine's Day spirit faster than anyone before, giving 7,777 hugs in 24 hours for a new world record. To break the previous record of 5,000 hugs in one day, Jeff Ondash needed more than 208 hugs per hour, or about 3 1/2 hugs per minute. Ondash, who already holds the record for most hugs in one hour with 1,205, logged just over 700 hugs during his first hour of embraces along the Las Vegas Strip.

He's now eying the record for the world's longest single hug, currently 24 hours and 1 second. Ondash, who sought the squeezes under the costumed alter ego Teddy McHuggin, said he wanted to become the world's hugging champion to raise money for the American Heart Association during American Heart month.
(More Guinness World Records stories.)