The Union hosted the annual College Bowl on Sunday afternoon andwill be sending a team to the regional competition in Commerce,Texas, in February.
The winning team included Christopher Lin, a chemistry graduatestudent, Josh Melder, a political science sophomore and DanielWhitman, a political science and mathematics sophomore.
The second-place team consisted of Clint Barron, Eric Brownfieldand Kent Falting, all graduate students in the Holmes Program forEducation.
The College Bowl consisted of a series of matches, in whicheight different teams challenged each other, two at a time. Therewere two rounds of questions per match.
Each team received 10 points for every correct answer and lostfive points for each incorrect response.
Each match was divided into two timed rounds. College Bowlfaculty fired questions at the contestants until time ran out.
The questions covered a broad range of topics, including popculture, history, mathematics, current events, science and ancientliterature.
The teams were allowed to pick their own original names. Oneteam called themselves “2(24,036,583)-1,” which is the largestknown prime number.
The winning team’s name was the “Election Spoilers,” and thesecond-place team called themselves the “Holmies.”
The College Bowl matches were held in various rooms at theUnion, with each set up for a 40-person audience, despite theevent’s sparse attendance.
Jason Meier, assistant director of the Union Program Council,said the College Bowl is a nationwide event, hosted in studentUnions throughout the fall. The winning team at each universitygoes to their region’s competition.
Meier said the University placed third in last year’s regionalcompetition. The winner of each of the 15 U.S. regions, plus onewild card, attend the nationals in April in Seattle, Wash.
The University went to the national championship for the firstand only time in Orlando in 1987, where the team lost the firstround.
The winning team, plus five additional high-scoring individuals,will practice together and decide among themselves which five ofthem will attend the regional competition, Meier said.
The five going to the regional competition will consist of fourprimary participants and one alternate.
Melder said he joined the Quiz Bowl Club when he came to theUniversity last year because he had participated in his Shreveporthigh school’s team.
Not all participants have prior experience, however. Whitmansaid he joined after a representative came to recruit members atthe Kirby Smith dorm.
College Bowl was a radio show from 1953 to 1957 and made its wayto network television in 1959. In its 17 seasons, it won an Emmyand the coveted Peabody award for entertainment and education.
Universities began to host College Bowl in 1977. The firstnational and world championship tournaments were held in June1978.^