|
|
| |||||
| |||||||
| HOT LINKS: Duck Hoops | Story Search | Front Page | NW Now | The Wire | R-G Free Trial | Site Map | Feedback |
| FINDERS: Classifieds | Events | Restaurants | WebCams | City Tours | Web Directory | Autos | Jobs | Coupons | Forms |
| ADVERTISING/CIRCULATION: Place Classified | Order R-G | Deliver R-G | Delivery Problems | Newspaper in Education |
Nation/World Business Sports Features Opinion
|
 |
 |
|
March 24, 2001 These UO students love a good grilling By GREG BOLT
Answer: The University of Oregon.
It's Dead Week on campus - the week before finals - but these students aren't trying to improve their grades; they're prepping for a trip to St. Louis and a shot at the national quiz bowl title. Quiz bowls, for those old enough to remember, used to be pretty popular at high schools and colleges. The old "College Bowl" series used to be a television staple, and Oregon had its own "High Q" program that pitted teams from high schools around the state against each other. The quiz bowls are still around, but they don't have quite the same profile. The UO used to field a team on the College Bowl circuit but dropped out after last year, prompting political science major Sean Cole to form a team on his own. Cole competed on the last two UO College Bowl teams. Along with Spanish major Amy Fuller and first-year law student Philip Huang, they won a regional competition staged recently by National Academic Quiz Tournaments, beating teams from the University of Washington and Texas A&M University. Travis Willse, a sophomore physics major, joined Cole and Fuller for the Thursday evening practice and might fill the team's fourth spot at the national championship in St. Louis on April 6-7. As the session gets going, the questions are all over the place, which is part of the appeal of quiz bowls. Anyone who likes "Jeopardy!" is a good candidate for a quiz team. "There seems to be a kind of common thread that all quiz bowl people share," said Willse, who competed on Science Bowl teams at Hillsboro's Glencoe High School. "Part of the appeal is a real love of trivial things." The quiz bowl format is similar to "Jeopardy!" but has some key differences. Instead of three individuals competing, there are two teams of three or four. And most will say the questions are harder and are delivered in a more complex fashion, offering clues that can tip off a sharp player. For example, a sample history question goes like this: "While minister to Great Britain, he helped draft a famous declaration with Pierre Soule and John Mason. As president, he helped bring on the Civil War by urging statehood for Kansas under the provisions of the locally rejected Lecompton Constitution. For 10 points, name this drafter of the Ostend Manifesto, the 15th president of the United States." The answer is James Buchanan. Quiz bowlers aren't necessarily brains, and the practice session resembles an evening playing board games more than it does a Mensa meeting. An odd sense of humor, Fuller said, is also a common thread on quiz teams. Fuller confides that she has an autographed picture of Alex Trebeck, the "Jeopardy!" host. Willse said that when he was young, his father used to give him a buck each time he came up with the answer to the "Final Jeopardy" question. Contacted later, Huang said he too enjoys a good round of "Jeopardy!" But he said quiz bowls are about more than trivia; they help develop a broader knowledge base that satisfies an inner curiosity most players harbor. "I'm always interested in learning new things," Huang said. "I'm like a sponge - I just absorb new things and remember them. I just think everything is interesting." Huang, who earned a history degree at the University of California at Berkeley before coming to the UO, was a regular quiz bowler as an undergrad and twice was on teams that placed third at nationals. He blew away the competition at the regionals in Seattle, scoring twice as many points as the nearest competitor. "He doesn't just give us the answer, he can tell us a whole story about the answer," Cole laughs. "Definitely, without him, we would not be going to nationals." There will be 35 other teams competing at the national final, and Cole and Huang are hoping for a good showing. Cole figures they'll at least be in the middle of the pack, but Huang thinks they'll do better than that. "I really hope we can break into the top 10," he said. "I think we have a pretty good chance of doing that." QUIZ TEAM The University of Oregon College Bowl team is trying to raise money for a trip to the national tournament in St. Louis. Those interested in sponsoring the group should call 345-9347.
|
|
|
|
.gif)
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.gif){kind=spacer}
.gif){kind=small}
.gif)
.gif)
