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Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:08 pm
by Scaled Flowerpiercer
I was wondering if anyone knew of any now-famous people who played quiz bowl (in some form) at some point; obviously the list of quiz bowl players who have appeared on jeopardy is pretty long, but I don't know how many otherwise famous people there are who played the game - I recently saw this http://www.rivertownsenterprise.net/Riv ... 52512.html which shows that Mark Zuckerberg played in high school (well, he played :chip: in Westchester, called "Academic Challenge") but I don't know of any others. It would be interesting to see if any other former quiz bowl players have reached celebrity status in some way.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:14 pm
by tiwonge
http://www.qbwiki.com/wiki/Category:Cel ... bowl_alums

This lists people like Hillary Rodham Clinton and several Canadians.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:24 pm
by Skepticism and Animal Feed
Papool Chaudhari, who coached a very successful intramural basketball team at the University of the Pacific.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:29 pm
by merv1618

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 12:02 am
by Amizda Calyx
According to Wikipedia, Lupe Fiasco played Academic Decathlon in high school.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2012 11:05 pm
by Kwang the Ninja
JoelleJay wrote:According to NPR, Lupe Fiasco played Academic Decathlon in high school.
http://www.npr.org/2011/03/12/134426574 ... everything

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:27 pm
by STPickrell
Does S.R. Siddarth, the only person to win a NAQT HSCNT and swing control of the Senate to the Democrats, count as famous?

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 11:10 pm
by Muriel Axon
QBWiki tells me that Jeff Kipnis, colleague of Derrida and Peter Eisenman, played for Georgia Tech in the 70s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Kipnis
http://www.qbwiki.com/wiki/Jeff_Kipnis

(EDIT: I realized now this is also on the list Colin posted, but it's cool enough to note anyway, especially since QBWiki alleges he had an important role in the history of quiz bowl.)

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2013 1:25 am
by Auroni
The Eighth Viscount of Waaaah wrote:QBWiki tells me that Jeff Kipnis, colleague of Derrida, ...played for Georgia Tech in the 70s.
what's the différance

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2013 3:29 am
by i never see pigeons in wheeling
Tokyo Sex Whale wrote:
The Eighth Viscount of Waaaah wrote:QBWiki tells me that Jeff Kipnis, colleague of Derrida, ...played for Georgia Tech in the 70s.
what's the différance
the binary hierarchy implied in the privileging of Derrida over Eisenman via placement of the former name first

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:38 am
by Sniper, No Sniping!
Jim Cordle (two-time Super Bowl champion) played for Fisher Catholic's quiz bowl team his freshman year before he transferred out.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:27 pm
by fizzball
Erik Nielsen (ex-BU; Garrett on Community) makes his Conan debut this Wednesday.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:23 am
by jonpin
Must have missed this thread the first time

Image

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:52 am
by Habitat_Against_Humanity
jonpin wrote:Must have missed this thread the first time

Image

Harry Altman: Class Act and incredibly smart dude.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:50 am
by Ben Dillon
Since I was coach at the time, I can supply the following:

Current (2020) presidential candidate Peter Buttigieg competed for two years on the Quiz Bowl team for St. Joseph's, IN (the school's name at the time). During his junior year, he was third on the team in scoring and played at the National Academic Championship at Loyola Marymount University in Washington DC. During his senior year (2000), he captained the team to a 9-1 league record that shared the season title. Overall, during the time Pete was a player, the team won 29 games against 18 losses.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 12:47 pm
by Good Goblin Housekeeping
Ben Dillon wrote: Mon Jan 28, 2019 9:50 am Since I was coach at the time, I can supply the following:

Current (2020) presidential candidate Peter Buttigieg competed for two years on the Quiz Bowl team for St. Joseph's, IN (the school's name at the time). During his junior year, he was third on the team in scoring and played at the National Academic Championship at Loyola Marymount University in Washington DC. During his senior year (2000), he captained the team to a 9-1 league record that shared the season title. Overall, during the time Pete was a player, the team won 29 games against 18 losses.
so what ur saying is if he gets far he'll be retconned into the nac hall of fame

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2019 2:27 pm
by Ben Dillon
Chip would love that, but I wasn't really planning on telling him :)

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2019 8:53 am
by frasier
This depends your definition of "quizbowl", but Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens both played University Challenge.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2019 10:52 pm
by sonstige
frasier wrote: Tue Feb 05, 2019 8:53 am This depends your definition of "quizbowl"
Also depending on such definitions, noted ESPN personality Bomani Jones is in the HCASC Alumni Hall of Fame:

https://www.hcasc.com/alumni/hof.asp

(obviously the list includes a number of other notable, former HCASC players as well)

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:26 am
by BabeRuthOfCollegeBowl
I have an in-person anecdote. My Upper Arlington High School team, on the still-running "In The Know" TV show in Columbus, OH, defeated Richard Cordray's Grove City HS team in 1975. But he got back at me, by becoming a 5-time champ on Jeopardy! (I was one and done), and going on to fame and power as Ohio AG and later gubernatorial nominee, with being head of the CFPB in between.

Long time no see, Travis!

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2019 2:16 pm
by Stained Diviner
While he never did anything at the national level or, as far as I know, in college, Sammy Gelfand was a serious player in high school at the local level. He attended Von Steuben, which is a magnet school in Chicago that played a lot of local tournaments at the time, graduating in 2005. He was on the IHSSBCA All State Team.

He started as the Golden State Warriors analytics director when Steve Kerr got hired and is credited with their push to make 300 passes per game. When Steph Curry was injured last year, he insisted that Gelfand sit next to him during games so that they could talk about the games as they happened. Gelfand is now working for the Pistons.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:27 pm
by Stained Diviner
STPickrell wrote: Mon Jan 07, 2013 2:27 pm Does S.R. Siddarth, the only person to win a NAQT HSCNT and swing control of the Senate to the Democrats, count as famous?
For all you kids who don't remember, SR Sidarth was filming Republican George Allen when Allen was running for re-election for the US Senate in Virginia in 2006. Sidarth was working for Jim Webb, who was Allen's opponent. Allen made some racist statements towards Sidarth, and Sidarth caught the whole thing on film. It went viral, and Webb narrowly won the election despite the fact that Virginia was generally a red state back then and Allen was the incumbent. After the election, the Senate was split 49-49, with two independents caucusing with the Democrats, which gave Democrats control. (There was a Republican President, so 50-50 would have given Republicans control.)

I bring this up now because Jon Gruden just got fired as coach of the Las Vegas Raiders for sending a bunch of sexist and homophobic emails to Bruce Allen, who is George Allen's brother. Bruce Allen worked for a team now known as the Washington Football Team.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2023 12:59 am
by amcombill
Toni Weisskopf, aka T. K. Weisskopf, played on her high school team (Grissom High School, Huntsville, AL) in the early 1980s. She is the publisher of Baen Books, a science fiction imprint, and edits books for them. She's been nominated for 4 Hugo awards as best editor.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 8:43 pm
by Harpie's Feather Duster
Current St. Louis Cardinals shortstop and MLB All-Star Paul DeJong played some high school quizbowl for Antioch in Illinois in the early 2010s. I think we played the same Masonic Sectionals at some point but never against each other.

Re: Famous People who played Quizbowl

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 12:56 pm
by TaylorH
Harpie's Feather Duster wrote: Fri Apr 14, 2023 8:43 pm Current St. Louis Cardinals shortstop and MLB All-Star Paul DeJong played some high school quizbowl for Antioch in Illinois in the early 2010s. I think we played the same Masonic Sectionals at some point but never against each other.
Paul's younger brother Matt played QB for UF from 2013-2017. I remember Matt talking about his brother playing in the minors but I did not know he went up to the majors or that he played QB too. Good find.