About The Pent

“The Pent” is short for The Pentathlon which by definition should mean a competition consisting of five separate events.  “The Pent” does not have five events but instead has three events.  Why the discrepancy, well, that is a long story……..

In the late 70’s while playing ping pong at a friend’s house, one of the older brothers in the house put his beer on the table so that he could make a phone call.  As we kept playing, the ball eventually hit the cup of beer on the table and we both shouted “Now you have to drink the beer”!  Of course this created an entirely new game to play and over the years the game evolved with new and creative rules.  By the mid to late 80’s tournaments needed to be played to determine who indeed was the best BeerPong player on the planet.  As the 80’s were winding down, BeerPong tournaments had been played across the East Coast including: Northeastern University in Boston, SUNY Albany, SUNY Binghamton, Port Jervis, NY, Paramus, NJ, University of Virginia, and Lake Worth, FL.

By the early 90’s most of us had graduated college but hadn’t really matured.  Many arguments continued from college as to who was the best “overall” athlete.  Whenever possible, simple games turned into competitive events.  Full contact Foosball was known to occur as well as the occasional “stray dart”.  It was decided to settle the matter once and for all and to have an all-day competition playing numerous competitive events culminating in a BeerPong tournament in the evening.  After not much thought, it was decided to play four bar-type events throughout the day and then play BeerPong for the fifth and final event – and the Pentathlon was born.  A point system was devised based on where each team ranked within each competition, a point system still in place today.

The first pentathlon was played on July 6, 1991 and started at roughly noon with 33 teams of two participating. Unfortunately, the logistical challenges weren’t thoroughly vetted and the reality of trying to get 33 teams to play separate tournaments in 5 different events quickly became apparent.  By the time BeerPong ended the competition, it was 3:45AM and few people were awake to congratulate the champions.  Not much knowledge was gained from the failures of Pentathlon I, and Pentathlon II played in July of 1992 ended in disaster.  While the popularity of the Pentathlon had grown and we now had 35 teams competing, the same time constraints and logistical issues plagued Pentathlon II, so much so, that several events had to be finished using a line of cars shining their headlights to see in the dark of night.  However, the true disaster came when at approximately 9:45PM it was discovered that nobody had bought the ping pong balls for the crowning event – BeerPong.  With no cell phones or 24 hour Walmarts yet, it was reluctantly decided that no champions could be crowned without playing BeerPong.

Pentathlons III, IV and V finally realized some learning curves and the events started to run more smoothly.  The biggest change that truly addressed the time constraints was the reduction in total events played, from 5 total events (four plus BeerPong) to 3 total events (two plus BeerPong).  However, since the “Pentathlon” had been used so often, the name was fairly stuck in everyone’s mind and momentum carried the name “Pentathlon” forward.

Up until Pentathlon V, the event was mostly about competition and enjoying each other’s company.  That changed during the holidays prior to Pentathlon VI when a dear friend suggested turning the Pentathlon into more of a fund raiser for charity.  It was agreed that this was a wonderful idea and plans were put in place to make this happen.  Unfortunately, a few months later, just prior to Pentathlon VI, this friend was killed by a drunk driver.  This became the turning point from which the Pentathlon or “The Pent” went from a post-college party to the fund raising event it is today.  Over all these years, the Pentathlon has evolved and grown into an incredible family weekend that still has a healthy dose of competition, but has raised over $475,000 for the local community. The most recent Pentathlons have raised, on average, over $33,000 per year and the event continues to grow in participation and funds raised.

Pentathlons today look very different than from those humble beginnings.  This year’s “Pent” will have a band playing on the Friday night stage with food being served all night.  People will come into town at all hours of the night to set their tents or campers up and see people they haven’t seen in a year.  Saturday morning starts with a hot shower and fully functioning bathrooms followed by breakfast and the anticipation of competition.  Around 11AM teams will start to sign in and select the events they will play as well as buy raffle tickets for the hundreds of items in the raffle.  At exactly noon, the competition starts and events will be played (or watched by those less hearty!). At approximately 4PM the early competition will be complete and the raffle will take place.  After the raffle ends, dinner will be served – the traditional pig roast during which time both the silent and live auctions will take place.  Following the completion of dinner and the auctions, a live band will take the stage and BeerPong will commence.  Sunday morning starts with a hot shower and bathrooms again followed by breakfast.  After all is put away, everyone makes their way to the river for an enjoyable float down the Delaware river complete with food, drink, and music. Sunday ends around 4PM as everyone says they're good-byes and heads home.

We look forward to seeing you at a future Pentathlon!!!!