Page 6 $ ^{ \circ} $ University Daily Kansan, October 15, 1981
Pente players compete today
By MARK ZIEMAN Staff Reporter
Lawrence game lovers out for a bit of sport or hoping to secure a national ranking have an excellent chance today of doing either at the second annual KU Pente Championships.
The tournament starts at 3 p.m. today in the Kansas Union and continues until Saturday night.
PENTE, a board game played with glass or plastic beads called gems, has meteorically risen in popularity this year among college students, Harry Singer, Overland Park senior and owner of Footlights, 244 Iowa St., said yesterday. The store is sponsoring the tournament along with SUA and KLZR.
Big, however, may be an understatement. Last year, Singer said, his store sold more than 20 Pete games a day during the season, and he
That expectation is more than reasonable, said Jean Devlin, advertising and promotions director for Pete Games, Inc., Stillwater, Okla.
"It's just incredible how it has evolved into a fad," Singer said. "This is going to be its first really big year."
"Next year we'll be national," Devlin said. "She said that this year 'we're not in every city or even every metropole."
According to Devin, the game's production rose from almost 50,000 sets in 1979 to 150,000 in 1980 and more than 350,000 years. Next year, the company will hold a $10,000 World Championship, with semi-finals being held in 25 cities, including Lawrence. In 1983, money will be raised to $50,000.
THOUGH THE game is sold mainly throughout the Midwest, Devlin said that Pante was also sold on each coast. The team's Neiman-Marcus and Bloomdalesm.
Bookmarking Not only did the fad originate in the Midwest, it was also propagated mainly by college students, Devlin said.
Invented by Gary Gabrel, a 1971 graduate of Oklahoma State University, the game zoomed from a pipe dream to a multi-million dollar corporation within four years, Devlin said. The company now employs more than 50 people, many of whom were hired during the last few weeks.
"It's easy to play," he said. "You can learn to play Pente in five minutes and you can become good at it in an hour."
SINGER WALKED over to a Pentecor board and picked up some colored
Pente's popularity stems from its simple rules, Singer said.
"It's a great game for college
students," he said. "I just got out of college ourselves."
"The object of the game is to be the first one to place five beads in a row or make five captures," he said, placing beads on vertices drawn onto the board.
Anyone can play, he said, because Pente has not developed to the point where there are elite players as in chess.
Chris Orlando, SUA indoor recreation director, said Singer was right.
Pente, a board game played with glass beads, has risen in popularity among KU students. The second annual KU Pente championship begins today.
rounds today and tomorrow from 3 to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The final round will be Saturday evening, he said.
ORLANDO SAID that he expected about 40 people to participate in the tournament, which holds preliminary
This year’s winner of the KU tourn-
ment will receive a deluxe set, valued at $85.
Dyche's Museum Shop offers worldwide gifts
By SUSAN COOKSEY Staff Reporter
In 1968, Tom Swearingen was passing through Neosho and came across a long, warped haberdashery counter in a deserted building. It was just what he needed. He knew that the original piece of a shop on campus that offers gifts from around the world.
SWEARINGEN, the director of exhibits at the museum, started the shop in 1968 after he found the old counter and restored it. He then added a door from a meat market, rock sliding from the shop, stained glass windows and specially made cabinets to display the items.
Fossilized shark's teeth, Egyptian scarab necklaces and Elephant Lucky Beans are just some of the off-the-wall items that the Museum Shop, in the Museum of Natural History in Dyche Hall, offers its customers.
When the shop opened in 1968, it shared the present shop space with the museum director's office. It had half as many items as it does now, and the selection was more mundane, Swearingen said. The shop was larger than the thimble and is now third larger than before, with more display space.
Any profit that the shop makes goes to the upkeep of the museum, according to Mr. Giles.
shop. She said that with funds now being cut for the museum, it is hoped that the profits from the shop can pay for the upkeep of many of the exhibits. The shop was remodeled to that the shop was remodeled was to pay some of the museum's costs.
The shop is set up to be self-supporting, according to Oraea, she said that although the shop was not set up to make large profits, its prices were competitive with other area stores. And although the prices are competitive with other area stores, she added, the shop's items are usually cheaper.
THE SHOP IS stocked with items that attract attention. There are little rubber animals for children, antique jewelry, bat dresses, Christmas ornaments, rubber stamps and little boxes from all over the world. For the museum, there are books, slides and post cards about some of the museum exhibits.
The shop tries to carry a wide selection of handicrafts from many different countries. Orazem said that the museum went for the unusual, trying to keep to things that dealt with nature, plants and animals.
The prices range from those of dimestores to those of boutiques. A rubber dinosaur cost 35 cents; a puppet from Indonesia is $30. The shop also carries expensive antique jewelry from Afghanistan.
NEW WEST & CONTEMPORY PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
The Spring 1980 Sellout CONCERT THE BOYS FROM JACKSONVILLE RETURN TO KU AND TAKING NO PRISONERS
With Special Guest Opener THE CLIMAX BLUES BAND
Tickets: $8.50 & $9.50 $8.00 & $9.00 with KUID
Fri. Nov. 13, 1981 HOCH AUDITORIUM 8:30 p.m.
TICKETS GO ON SALE FRIDAY, Oct. 16. 9:00 a.m. SUA BOX OFFICE
Halloween Masks
Make-Up, Hats
and more much.
1002 MASSACHUSETTS STREET
Inside the One Thousand Mall
COMMONWEALTH THEATRES