Wiki Project: Defunct national championships

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 2:22 pm

OK, we've gotten the new quizbowl wiki off the ground. I'd like to call for some work in specific areas on a semi-regular basis, since we have a lot of coaches and other folks on this board who have been involved with high school quizbowl for a long time and remember stuff that precedes most of the people, myself included, who have been adding to the wiki.

The first thing I want to request help with is defunct national championship tournaments. It's hard to find any information on stuff like the American Academic Challenge or National Academic Bowl, and I've seen implications in my sources that there are even more long-dead tournaments that I haven't even heard of. If you participated in one of these tournaments and can add to the scanty descriptions, or create a new page for a tournament that doesn't have one, please feel free to post something on the wiki.

jrbarry · Post by **jrbarry** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:41 pm

National Academic Bowl stuff

June, 1996 at UNLV in Las Vegas, NV (24 teams)

June, 1997 at Southern Cal in Los Angeles, CA. (26 teams)

John Gose worked for Chip Beall one year, but he was, in no way, an associate of Chip Beall. He could not stand Chip Beall and I know that from firsthand conversations on multiple occasions.

Gose's questions were all written by himself and they did not resemble NAC's either in content (99% were strictly academic) nor in design (most were straightforward with multiple clues).

Sen. Estes Kefauver (D-TN) · Wed Dec 05, 2007 9:59 pm

And who won?

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 2:34 am

jrbarry wrote:National Academic Bowl stuff

June, 1996 at UNLV in Las Vegas, NV (24 teams)

June, 1997 at Southern Cal in Los Angeles, CA. (26 teams)

John Gose worked for Chip Beall one year, but he was, in no way, an associate of Chip Beall. He could not stand Chip Beall and I know that from firsthand conversations on multiple occasions.

Gose's questions were all written by himself and they did not resemble NAC's either in content (99% were strictly academic) nor in design (most were straightforward with multiple clues).

Thanks, I'll change the page to incorporate that. Do you have any info on the American Academic Challenge?

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 7:55 am

I was going to say... we did have that on our national champions results page, didn't we?

Byko · Post by **Byko** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:58 am

Matt Weiner wrote:Thanks, I'll change the page to incorporate that. Do you have any info on the American Academic Challenge?

Brooks Sanders used to run the AAC. I want to say that it happened in 1997 and 1998, though I may be wrong on that--I think it only happened twice. I know that Walton won it one of those years. Beyond that, I'm not sure--I had been in touch with Brooks earlier and asked him about it, and he said he's not sure he has much of anything of the results himself anymore.

I used to have one or two of the matches from it on tape from him, but it was recorded in such a way that I had video but no audio, so it has probably long since been recorded over.

STPickrell · Post by **STPickrell** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 12:22 pm

I remember reading something about STAR 2000 on this board and the coach at Honaker and Thomas Walker mentioned having a team for that.

jrbarry · Post by **jrbarry** » Sat Dec 08, 2007 9:44 pm

NAB 1996 Brookwood (GA) won first place and a large cash prize.

NAB 1997 Edison (CA) won first place.

mhanna · Post by **mhanna** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:02 am

Griffin Experience in early 1990s in St. Louis. Eisenhower, DCC and Aiken were the top three teams. We all received a nice trophy and a cash prize.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 3:02 am

Can you tell me more about the format of that tournament? What/who was the "Griffin Experience" that ran it?

Right now the following tournaments have at least nominal information:

American Academic Challenge
High School National Championship Tournament
National Academic Bowl
National Academic Championship
National Scholastics Championship
Panasonic Academic Challenge
Scholastic Showdown
Tournament of Champions

If there's any tournaments that are not listed at all, I'd like to know about them so I can put up a page and invite people to fill it in. If this is the complete list of tournaments that have billed themselves as high school national championships, I can start researching them individually.

mhanna · Post by **mhanna** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:21 am

Matt,

Wish that I could tell you more. The tournament was already in existence when I heard about it at ASCN. It was very short-lived as the sponsor had a difficult time breaking even with the prizes awarded. The tournament was held on the campus of St. Louis University. We went in either '94 or '95. I'm old and a little fuzzy remembering things that long ago. I am much better remembering things from the '50s.

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 9:23 am

Matt--Beth Young (retired) from Quincy Illinois had a long tenure as a quiz bowl coach and would probably be a good source of information. I'm not sure if she has email but I'll do some sleuthing.

Byko · Post by **Byko** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:24 pm

Wasn't there also some sort of National Quiz Bowl for Jesuit High Schools that lasted very briefly for a year or two in the late 90s or early 00s?

Gonzagapuma1 · Post by **Gonzagapuma1** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:27 pm

Byko wrote:Wasn't there also some sort of National Quiz Bowl for Jesuit High Schools that lasted very briefly for a year or two in the late 90s or early 00s?

I know there was a tournament that ran for a year around then because we went and Father told us about it. I'll ask him and find out details at practice today.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:57 pm

Are we excluding quiz bowl comps that are subsumed under a convention? (Yes, I'm specifically mentioning Beta Club.)

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:05 pm

I'd like information on the Beta thing too, since it seems like some regular quizbowl teams do it.

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:11 pm

Yes, I ran a National Jesuit Quiz Bowl for one year. I wanted to make it an annual event, but only eight schools attended (albeit with good geographical representation; e.g.. Gonzaga, Belen, Fordham) and it didn't seem worth it to put time and energy into such a tournament w/o at least a quorum of interest (there are 47 Jesuit high schools in the U.S.). If you still want records, I'll try to find them.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:15 pm

That tournament was actually put into the ancient version of this site:

http://www.hsquizbowl.org/schedule/mayjune2001.html

So we have the format and the top four...if you can find the full field, scores, or some anecdotes about how the crucial matches went, we can probably create a pretty nice page.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:42 pm

I am finding some A-plus material in searching newspaper archives for information on really old tournaments!

The June 13, 1986, San Diego Union-Tribune wrote:Despite his team's early elimination from the competition sponsored by the National Academic Association of Dallas, coach Blaze Newman said a final point tally put Torrey Pines in eighth place nationwide. "They really did very well, with everything considered," Newman said. Torrey Pines was one of only three teams in the state invited to compete. The other two were from Northern California. Newman and the students expressed dismay about the overall format of the competition. "We were disappointed because we hadn't had the chance to do our best," Newman said.

"They asked silly, tricky questions that were much more like a game show than an academic competition." Academic competitors normally field straightforward questions about literature, mathematics, science, history and current events, Newman said. "One of the questions they asked was, `What planet are you nearest to?' We're trying to figure out how many miles away the closest planet is, and the answer was `Earth,' " Newman said.

"That is not what we flew 3,000 miles to do." Rich said he and his teammates were a little upset by the competition. "The moderator made up the rules as he went along," he said, but soon forgot their troubles after visits to Cape Canaveral and Disneyworld. "That part was exciting ... and really we did pretty well (in the competition.) We are eighth in the nation.

Stained Diviner · Post by **Stained Diviner** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:53 pm

Please remove that question before it gets plagiarized.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:24 pm

There are only 47 jesuit high schools in the US??? Just 47???

Captain Sinico · Post by **Captain Sinico** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 6:10 pm

Laughing on line.

MaS

David Riley · Post by **David Riley** » Thu Dec 13, 2007 11:34 am

Yup. Just 47.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 9:33 am

I've added as much info as I can find to the NAC article. Does anyone know who finished in the top four in the blank spots?

http://www.doc-ent.com/qbwiki/index.php ... C_top_four

BroNi · Post by **BroNi** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:06 pm

Matt....

I went back through my records to see if I could help a little, but unfortunately they only go back to '97, which you already have.

I do offer 1 correction however, in '03, my records have Smithtown (in Chip's Tournament Progress Rankings) 4th, while Walton was 3rd.

(Edited to correct year)

Byko · Post by **Byko** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 9:45 am

Downingtown High School (Pennsylvania) was the other final four team in 1996--we had faced them in Quiznet, and they weren't bad at all. I don't know if they were 3rd or Manheim Township was 3rd, but those were the two that came out of D.C. that year.

I too have the same information as Brother Nigel regarding 2003. In fact, I have the rankings for the entire field for every tournament going back to 1997 and remember a fair amount (especially in New Orleans) from the 1996 tournament. Beyond that, I'm pretty much broke.

First Chairman · Post by **First Chairman** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 12:05 pm

Would you dare that we ask

if he has records? I'm sure we can check the wayback website but I surmise you've already done that.

Byko · Post by **Byko** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:22 pm

One more thing: according to a Wikipedia article on Winnebago, Illinois, FWIW, it says that Winnebago HS won the Griffin Experience in 1994.

Matt Weiner · Post by **Matt Weiner** » Thu Dec 27, 2007 4:39 pm

Will Run PACE for Reese's wrote:Would you dare that we ask if he has records? I'm sure we can check the wayback website but I surmise you've already done that.

Yeah, you can see the links to all the archive.org pages I found in the individual articles.

Qunlimited.com went online in 1996, and there was a nationals summary page for the NAC that year, but it has not been preserved. All subsequent tournament summary, team ranking, and playoff tree pages are linked in the individual years' wiki articles.

Thanks for the info so far, everyone. I'll be doing ASCN and Panasonic year-by-year next, so get ready for that...