BEACON SPORTS Scavengers on the hunt By Jerry B. Pohl Humor Page Editor j hp I 53 Co' psusedu Spring is here, and it's scavenger hunt season once again. Across America and around the world, teams will be compet ing to win points and prizes in this quirky sport that grows in popularity every year. The first scavenger hunt was probably thousands of years ago and had food as the only item on the list. Since then, the tradition has grown into a sport rivaling curling in its legitimacy. Though most of the bigger and more popular scavenger hunts started small, only including areas local to their respective regions, they now include participants from many foreign coun tries. The first of these is "The Great Scavenger Hunt", which will begin April 8, Noon CST, (1 p.m. EST). The hunt will give competing teams of four 24 hours to tackle a 500 item list. The hunt is based on digital cameras, with the teams taking pictures of things to find and do on the list. "The Great Scavenger Hunt" was started by Dan Tieken and Shawn Wilson at Western Illinois University. When it began, it only took five hours and was open to only 14 invit ed guests. Now the hunt is drawing glob al attention. For more information see: www.thegreatscavengerhunt.com. Another famous hunt, called, simply, Tricadecathlonomania, was created in Minnesota by Alex Robbins and Tad Johnson in 2001. It has also grown in popularity, riding the wave of attention scavenger hunts have been getting. This hunt will be April 15, the week after The HOUSING AND FOOD SERVICES ATHLETE OF THE WEEK NAME: SPORT: CLASS DATE: Gabe Stephenson (State College/State College) has been named the Housing and Food Services Athlete of the Week. The junior catcher led the Behrend baseball team to a 3-1 week to open up confer ence play. He was outstanding at the plate batting .500 during the week and wording seven RBIs. Stephenson belted homeruns in three of four AMCC games and two of them proved to be game winners. "Gabe had several clutch at-bats this week and is starting to get hot," said head baseball coach Paul Benim. "We need him to continue to produce from the middle of the lineup." The Behrend Lions next play Thursday, April 6 when AMCC rival Hilbert comes to town for a conference doubleheader at 1 PM. Behrend then hosts Frostburg on Saturday, April 8 for another doubleheader. Saturday's game against Frostburg vvill be aired live on the Image Sports Network at 1 PM. Housing and Food Services Athlete of the Week is selected by the Spot* Great Scavenger Hunt. Teams of four will have 24 hours to complete as much as they can of a 288 item list, which will include items, performances and trivia. For more information see: http://www.trica.org/home.htm. At the forefront of the scavenger hunt trend are the universities; most promi nent among these being the University of Chicago. Student Chris Straus estab lished the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt in 1987, and it has since become the largest scavenger hunt in the world, according to Wikipedia. It's an annual event, spanning four days and including 300 items including performance, construction, innovation, competition and travel. Most of the list can be completed at or near the University of Chicago, but trips to points around the globe could and have been worth plenty of points. A trademark of this hunt is that much of the list must be solved like a riddle to find out what needs to be done. In this hunt at the top of the heap, a rivalry has developed between two historically successful teams, Max Palevsky and Snell- Hitchcock. This hunt comes closer to the end of the season, starting on May 11. For more information see: http://scavhunt 1 .uchicago.edu/. Most of these lists are just about impossible to complete, so the team with the most points wins. With most profes sional scavenger hunts, the judges will determine nearly everything, such as the point value of list items and the legiti macy of entries. With the rampant success of scavenger hunts around the world, how long will it be before Penn State joins in? Gabe Stephenson Baseball Junior April 3, 2006 Babe Ruth Trade 1920, the Boston Red Sox sold George Herman "Babe" Ruth to the Yankees for 00,000 and a ballpark loan. In an attempt to finance his girlfriend's theatrical play iston owner Harry Frazee sold Ruth, initiating the Curse of the Bambino, which ted until 2004. With 11 seconds left in t CONTRIBUTED PHOTO 1993 NCAA finals, Webber, in fear of being called for an obvious travel, called a timeout that the Wolverines did not have. North Carolina capitalized on the Technical Foul and took advantage to claim the Title. 4. Picking Sam Bowie over MJ The Portland Trailblazers selected Sam Bowie with the second overall pick in the 1984 NBA Draft. With the third pick, the Chicago Bulls selected Michael Jordan. Given the third pick, it's easy to see how big this mistake is. Jordan went on to soar into the record books, while Sam Bowie soared onto this list. Steve Bartman, the 26 year-old Chicago Cub fan caught the foul ball that could have sealed the victory for the World Series-deprived Cubs. Outfielder Moises Alou was robbed of a pop-fly as Bartman approached the end of the bench. The catch left the Cubs without a title and Bartman without any friends. 7. 1994 MLB strike For the first time in professional sports history, a league fails to have a post sea son. For the first time in 90 years, MLB did not hold the World Series. As the owners demanded a salary cap, the players opposed. After all the hostility set tled, the games resumed after 232 days with 920 games lost. 8. NHL money dispute NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and the NHLPA collectively decided to cancel the entire 2004-2005 season because the two sides could not agree on financial terms. Since neither side could agree, no games were played for the entire season, causing franchises to miss out on a large amount of revenue. 9. MJ playing baseball Michael Jordan is a certain selection for the NBA Hall of Fame. As he tried to follow in the footsteps of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders, Jordan attempted to become a Major League Baseball player. While struggling in the minors and barely batting over .200, Jordan made almost the same impression in baseball as his movie "Space Jam" did in Hollywood. Sports Trivia 101 Penn State Behrend has had an immensely successful sports program. Many athletes have gone on to have lucrative careers in the world of sports. One Behrend alum had an especially famous career in Major League Baseball. During the fourth inning of Game Four of the 1987 World Series, what Behrend alum slugged a three-run homerun to help the St. Louis Cardinals? Last Week's answer: San Diego Padres (Answered by Kara Hesch, Patrick Webster, and Jeff Wemmell) The answer will be posted in next week's Beacon issue. Email your answers to cslsoos@psu.edu. The first person to answer correctly will have their name printed next week. Good Luck! By Chris LaFuria Sports Editor cslsoosCa'psti.edu 2. Bill Buckner grounder 5. Scott Norwood's miss Two words- Wide Right. This is the most notorious mistake in the NFL, one that has written the name of the professional onto many death threat-lists. In Super Bowl XXV, Norwood missed a field goal with 20 seconds left to give the New York Giants the game. The Giants went on to a 20-19 victory. 6. Cubs fan who caught potential out CONTRIBUTED PHOTO The Red Sox saw another World Championship go through their legs (literally) as first baseman Bill Bucker committed the most infa- mous error in Major League Baseball history. The Sox had a two-run lead with two outs as Buckner's blunder caused a rally by the New York Mets 3. Chris Webber timeout 10. Canseco's Cranium On May 26, 1992, the Indians' Carlos Martinez blasted a shot into the outfield that ricocheted off of the cranium of Jose Canseco. As Canseco ran towards the wall, the ball bounced off of his head and sailed over the fence for a homerun. Canseco, and his look of complete confusion, will forever be recorded in baseball's photo albums. The Behrend Beacon I Friday, April 7, 2006 CONTRIBUTED PHOTO CONTRIBUTED PHOTO CONTRIBUTED PHOTO