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THON

I believe THON deserves some recognition this weekend as it is currently going on at the BJC. Day to Day on this blog, we talk about all the great sports stories and discussion that Penn State has to offer. THON deserves to be one of those stories. As a 2005 alum, I had the honor of dancing in 2003 for PSU York, Moraling in 04 and 05, and getting the Penn State Lion Scouts officially involved in this great event.

For those of you have have been involved with THON before, know what a huge impact 3000+ college students have on the Four Diamonds Families, and the PSU community. It is truly amazing to have been a part of this great tradition, and it is truly amazing to as an alumni to see PSU students continue to grow in this great tradition. Joe Paterno said it best at 2003 THON when he said " When they say WE ARE PENN STATE, THEY MEAN YOU!".

I couldn't agree with you more Joe...........FTK!  WE ARE!!!.....

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It needs to go back to 48 hours….dancing straight for 48 sounds perfect

by psupride on Feb 22, 2009 11:22 AM EST reply actions  

How long is it now?

When I was a student (87 – 91) it was 48 hours.

"The sea was angry that day, my friends." G. Costanza

by NJ lion on Feb 22, 2009 7:11 PM EST up reply actions  

It's 46 hours now

something to do with moving to the BJC and having to clean up and be out by a certain time due to NCAA regulations I believe. Yadda, yadda, yadda… Perhaps someone knows the full-on details, but that’s what I remember hearing about when they made the move.

by IcersGuy on Feb 22, 2009 7:21 PM EST up reply actions  

from what I heard the overalls in whatever yera it moved to BJC were faced with a tough choice – either move to BJC and cut the hours or stay in rec hall but the fire marshall told them they were going to have to start enforcing max capacity there and A LOT less people would have been in at the end

by psupride on Feb 22, 2009 7:24 PM EST up reply actions  

Back in my day it was at White Building. Talk about packed.
Man, how quickly things change.

"The sea was angry that day, my friends." G. Costanza

by NJ lion on Feb 22, 2009 8:06 PM EST up reply actions  

If the number of Fraternity violations

continue to escalate, a move back to the White building might be possible.

pinkertonpark.com

by rahpsu92 on Feb 23, 2009 1:00 PM EST up reply actions  

Ugh

I haven’t heard of Fraternities getting in trouble and moving back to the White Building, but there has been some general asshatery that has been going on making the BJC staff angry. THON needs to be in the BJC to maximize its potential.

by psuphiman80 on Feb 23, 2009 5:27 PM EST up reply actions  

Kath?

i havn’t heard anything either. Suprising isn’t it, considering if one us heard, we both would have. The only thing we’ve heard is that the bjc staff wern’t happy when they let the committees in to take tours of the bjc before hand.

“maybe we can be awesome?” -——— bsd, helping to connect people since 2008.

Let's Go State

by rmcmillen50 on Feb 23, 2009 10:18 PM EST up reply actions  

haha

we all know Kath is the one that makes thon run

Let's Go State

by rmcmillen50 on Feb 24, 2009 2:30 PM EST up reply actions  

My reference was Beta Theta Pi

being removed from their awesome on campus mansion and their brotherhood disbanded. Didn’t their neighbors up the street just suffer a similar predicament.

Since THON is a Panhellenic/IFC event I was connecting the dwindling fraternity population (what are we down to now – only 56 or so?) with the success of THON. Less fraternities = less pledges canning for donations at dangerous urban intersections and less dancers = smaller vanue = white building.

pinkertonpark.com

by rahpsu92 on Feb 24, 2009 10:44 AM EST up reply actions  

Naahhh

Beta will be back next year. And you don’t raise 7 million dollars canning on street corners. You raise it with matching corporate donations, which is Thon’s dirty little secret.

"I honestly think the "Spread HD" is going to work pretty well, and we’ll be just fine this year". - 8-27-2008

by jesse. on Feb 24, 2009 10:58 AM EST up reply actions  

see

ATO/ZTA’s sponsorship with an ATO brother’s chain of Subways and Pepsi.

Canning is great but the sponsors are what makes THON huge.

I know Beta is big (I love the house) but you sure they’ll be back next year? They have pull like that?

by kmblue on Feb 24, 2009 1:47 PM EST up reply actions  

Yes.

Beta has that much pull, and more than likely much more. You’ll note that Penn State is not trying to get the Betas kicked off campus, although I’d venture a guess that whatever hazing they got cought doing was way worse than whatever penny-anty alcohol violation their neighbors got cought doing.

"I honestly think the "Spread HD" is going to work pretty well, and we’ll be just fine this year". - 8-27-2008

by jesse. on Feb 24, 2009 1:58 PM EST up reply actions  

THON will be fine

There was an article in the Collegian about the rise of Independent THON organizations. While indepents don’t do quite as much as Frats they are quickly rising. THON is becoming more and more of a university wide cause rather than a greek cause. Greeks aren’t the only ones who dance either. There will always be way more than 700 people willing to dance.

by psuphiman80 on Feb 24, 2009 1:49 PM EST up reply actions  

I was really just messing around...

the event is eons past the litle White Building deal I remember from my years. I was also kidding about canning making up the majority of the $7million+ they raked in this year. Those are some serious cans – budumdum.

I see I touched a nerve.

pinkertonpark.com

by rahpsu92 on Feb 24, 2009 2:17 PM EST up reply actions  

ooh, seven million dollar cans

I mean if the six million dollar man was that amazing, just imagine what 7 million dollars for ONE (ok, maybe technically two) part would be like.

I’ll tell you what it would be like: heaven

by The JuggerNitt on Feb 24, 2009 2:28 PM EST up reply actions  

LOLboobjoke

Tough to tell when people are kidding on the net. You’d be surprised how many people know of THON, but don’t really know how it’s all done. S’all good dude.

by psuphiman80 on Feb 24, 2009 2:30 PM EST up reply actions  

My only problem

is that Fraternitys have such a bad reputation, but the greek contribution in establishing and running Dance Marathon (and Homecoming) goes largely ignored. Could you get 700 dancers without the fraternities and sororites, sure, but there are something like five volunteers for every dancer (almost exclusively greek) that participate in the event, not counting those who raise the money.

It sometimes seems like the only thing Town and Gown agree on is that we need to get rid of the Fraternities. It’s kind of bullshit for Penn State to take credit for what a great event Dance Marathon is while at the same time glossing over who is actually responsible for it. There is kind of a tension there.

"I honestly think the "Spread HD" is going to work pretty well, and we’ll be just fine this year". - 8-27-2008

by jesse. on Feb 24, 2009 2:33 PM EST up reply actions  

btw

The pep rally with all of the sports teams last night was pretty good. All of the teams had to do a little dance to a “childhood movie” theme. The football team did the Remember the Titans “We Are the Titans / Ain’t No Mountain.” It wasn’t anything to write home about. Given that it was such a big team (although none of the big names showed up), it wasn’t that great. I was most impressed by the Icers. They did a Happy Feet dance where they all dressed up like penguins. I think the fact that they had limited leg mobility was the best part.

The contest was judged by the THON dancers. Each dancer was given two stars to put in their favorite team’s bucket. I don’t know who won but Men’s Gymnastics and the Icers would have gotten my stars. It’s almost unfair for Men’s Gymnastics.

by psdeuce on Feb 22, 2009 11:42 AM EST up reply actions  

Icers and Gymnastics were on another level

they were the two best by far. I think the football team only had their freshmen participate

by WPIALkid22 on Feb 22, 2009 4:02 PM EST up reply actions  

I have video of the entire Icers routine

Because nothing says awesome like athletes in penguin outfits.

And yes – they did win the competition. As one person put it, “Anything you do in a penguin suit is funny.”

by IcersGuy on Feb 22, 2009 6:45 PM EST up reply actions  

Well share already

This is a video that I am now desperately looking forward to.

Zug be with you.
And also with you.

by NewJackCity on Feb 22, 2009 6:46 PM EST up reply actions  

I'll work on that tonight

Got home not too long ago, so I’m still settling back in and all that fun stuff. But yes – hopefully tonight I’ll get it uploaded for all to see.

by IcersGuy on Feb 22, 2009 7:22 PM EST up reply actions  

Yeah, it was good stuff.

I knew coming in that the men’s gymnastics HAD to have something good in store, but when the Icers came out in penguin suits, I couldn’t help but prepare for something sweet.

by phantom818 on Feb 22, 2009 7:59 PM EST up reply actions  

Quick Update to this post

The final total raised was $7,490,133.87!!
Congrats to everyone involved, and dancing.

by dawsonPSU10 on Feb 22, 2009 4:31 PM EST reply actions  

Good lord…I think they made half of that my freshman year…and that was 5 years ago. Wow.

John Madden told me 90% of the game was half-mental...

by TheK-GunNeedsReloaded on Feb 22, 2009 6:18 PM EST up reply actions  

I never played football

but I did get a pep-talk from Joe Paterno at ‘Thon in 1997. As crazy as it sounds, I felt like I could have run through a brick wall when he was done, despite the fact that I’d been on my feet for about 30 hours.

And I don’t remember a single word he said.

"I honestly think the "Spread HD" is going to work pretty well, and we’ll be just fine this year". - 8-27-2008

by jesse. on Feb 23, 2009 4:32 PM EST up reply actions  

Video of Icers

Not mine, but it’ll do while my camera, compy, and I have a battle of uploading..

Icers video

by IcersGuy on Feb 22, 2009 9:59 PM EST reply actions  

Yeah, I was gonna post that myself but I didn't want to steal your thunder.

Also, I saw it was from a side angle. It’s probably best viewed more from the front, I don’t know what vantage point you had of the whole scene.

And for those that can’t tell…when they lift up their costumes at the very end, the three guys have F T K on their chests and that prompted a very big cheer from the crowd

Also, here’s the men’s gymnastics performance. Pretty sweet stuff, gotta give them props for that.

by phantom818 on Feb 22, 2009 10:11 PM EST up reply actions  

Pep rally winners

It’s pretty much an unfair advantage for men’s teams at pep rally. I’ve been at the past four pep rallies and The Icers won this year, I know the men’s golf one once, the gymnastics team won the other two times I was there. All a men’s team needs to do is look choreographed and it’s in the bag. And nothing will beat the time the men’s gymnastics performed the Robin Hood Men in Tights song….EPIC SUCCESS

by blt on Feb 23, 2009 1:20 AM EST reply actions  

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