By: Terry Murphy, Staff Writer

Published November 24th, 1982 – The Daily Trojan

The members of the two bands jeered at each other from across the football field of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The UCLA band, decked out in its blue and gold, sang a derogatory dirge directed toward its rival, the cardinal and gold USC band.

“It’s a good thing you sing better than you play,” answered members of the Trojan band.

The bands cheered as the competitors took the field to begin yet another meeting between the two superschools of Southern California.

What set this apart from other USC-UCLA clashes was the game.

There on the floor of the Coliseum was a 50-foot by 50-foot Pente board.

The game board is a grid on which two players place stones. The object is to place five stones in a row or capture five pairs of an opponent’s stones.

In last Wednesday’s case, the game pieces were members of the respective bands.

Pente has just found its way to the West Coast. It was created nine years ago by a student at Oklahoma State University and has become popular on the East Coast.

One of the purposes for the tournament was to promote the game on this coast. “Pente is extremely big back east,” said Dorothy Birsic, a university student who acted as a public relations liaison for the tournament. “It’s been out for a few years, but it hasn’t really caught on down here.”

During the summer, one of the representatives of Manning, Selvage and Lee, Inc., the public relations firm handling Pente, came up with the idea to hold a giant Pente game between USC and UCLA during Troy Week. “It’s (the two schools’ rivalry) a big part of Los Angeles,” explained Birsic.

Wednesday’s game could be included in The Guinness Book of World Records. “It’s the largest board game ever believed to be played,” said Cella Morey, a public relations representative of Manning, Selvage and Lee, Inc. A representative of Guinness attended the match to document it, but the game’s standing as a record has not been confirmed.

John Ramsey, voice of the Dodgers and the Trojan football team, announced the event and called it “another triumph in the battle of non-electronic board games versus electronic games.”

“No, non-electronic games are not dead yet,” Ramsey said at the onset of the game.

The USC and UCLA players ascended the stands to an area just below the press box where they could get a better perspective on the game board.

“Relax, man. Just play like you did at (the Student Activities Center),” said one of the three friends who accompanied USC Pente champion Minh Thai up the steps. UCLA’s 18-year-old representative, Afshin Ghotbi, walked alone to the podium.

Cheering was limited to the two bands since attendance was extremely sparse – about 30 people, including public relations personnel and a hovering media helicopter from KTLA. The lack of attendance could be explained in part by the fact that only the main entrance of the Coliseum was open.

Despite the small crowd, the game went on.

“UCLA wins the toss,” Ramsey announced.

“UCLA, first move to center grid.” said Ghotbi, calling upon a UCLA Band member to scramble to center field.

“USC, first move, right two,” Thai said.

“UCLA moves down three, left three,” Ghotbi countered.

Thai, a 17-year-old Rubik’s Cube champion who broke the record at 22 seconds, called for his game piece to move two grids to the right of Ghotbi’s band member. The Trojan band member took his time, marching to his spot in the traditional USC style.

Thai previously had won the right to represent this university at a tournament held at SAC. At that tournament he won $250 and a $100 Pente game board.

Ghotbi received the same prize at the UCLA tournament held the night before the USC-UCLA match.

“USC, right four,” Thai said.

“UCLA, down one, left one,” Ghotbi answered.

Pente footed the bill for the entire event which cost about $5,000, Morey said. Each band received a donation of $1,000.

“USC, up one, right one,” Thai announced.

“UCLA, down two, left two,” Ghotbi retaliated.

The game went on with Ghotbi capturing two USC pairs. The board was speckled with alternating cardinal and blue game pieces.

“USC, up one, left one – USC, victory,” Thai announced. “It just goes to show you that losers go to UCLA,” called a Trojan band member.

GRIDIRON GAMEBOARD – Minh Thai, the university’s top ‘Pente’ player, celebrates after directing USC’s victory over UCLA last week. The game, which was played at the Coliseum using band members as game pieces, was a promotional stunt aimed at gathering interest for Pente on the West Coast.