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Sometime in the early 90's, Rich
Foley visited the World Championship Punkin Chunk'n with his
family. A few years later, as part of a Boy Scout endeavor,
Foley actually competed one year in the Youth Division with
his troop. While the youngsters should have been proud of
themselves for building a trebuchet from tree branches,
Foley still had a yearning to compete with the big boys.
In 2001, Rich Foley, Jim Riley, and
John Howard and their families visited the World
Championships. It was an abnormally hot day for October, but
the trio immediately caught the chunkin' bug. The following
Monday, Foley and Howard met in Riley's office, and the rest
was history. The three agreed to form a team and began to
develop the foundations of PumpkinHammer. Within an hour,
Rich contacted his brother Tim Foley and friend John Hopkins
to complete the team.
In 2002, the young team competed and
shocked the Punkin Chunk'n world by placing third. It was
quite an achievement and proved that PumpkinHammer was a
force to be reckoned with.
With the untimely death of John
Howard and the growth of PumpkinHammer allowed us to add our
newest team members in 2003 - Shawn Wyatt, Dan Foley, and
Dave Hanna. In 2003, PumpkinHammer became only one of two
trebs ever to throw a pumpkin over 1,000 feet.
In 2004, the Mighty PumpkinHammer
team became one of the first two Trebuchets to ever throw a
pumpkin over 1,350 feet.
In 2005, PumpkinHammer continued its
bridesmaid position.
In 2006, Eric Jordan joined as
PumpkinHammer's newest member. The team decided to modify
PumpkinHammer into the world's largest Whipper type
trebuchet. Unfortunately, we did not have anytime for
testing and had terminal damage after our first completion
throw. Thus making 2006 our first year that we did not place
in the top three in the World Championships.
In 2007, PumpkinHammer added a new
team member in Dave Daddazio. The Whipper design again
failed to materialize. PumpkinHammer entered as traditional
Trebuchet, placing 3rd.
The Team... |
