The Game Show Forum
The Game Show Forum => The Big Board => Topic started by: Adam Nedeff on October 01, 2014, 12:03:36 AM
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An attempt on Facebook at documenting an exhaustive history of "College Bowl" and all of its variants. (https://www.facebook.com/CollegeBowlValhalla?fref=nf) Found it by accident tonight and it's utterly fascinating. Very recommended.
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According to the historian, Pat Sajak committed a major blunder in the 1984 30th Anniversary matchup. As a result, he was not invited back. Anyone know what happened? Apparently the Youtube clip provided there picks up after this mistake.
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According to the historian, Pat Sajak committed a major blunder in the 1984 30th Anniversary matchup. As a result, he was not invited back. Anyone know what happened? Apparently the Youtube clip provided there picks up after this mistake.
In my experience, which is somewhat extensive here, serious quiz bowl players are the most unforgiving lot you can possibly imagine, and any mistake that occurs during any competition is the Worst Thing Evar. In their insular world, quiz bowl is everything. You don't have to dig very far in the Quizbowl Wiki http://qbwiki.com (http://qbwiki.com) to find jaw-droppingly self-important nonsense.
In fact, just to give you an idea, the Quizbowl Wiki mentions the Facebook page that Adam shared above, but takes pains to offer this caveat: "Warning- maintained by a College Bowl employee, may be a whitewash on certain controversies"
I'd be curious about Sajak's mistake myself, but it's probably important to maintain a healthy perspective.
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I found the Definitive List of Best Ever entertaining reading, such as the pronouncement that Steve Perry is "surly but competent," and that the youngest ever champion of Millionaire and who very nearly duplicated the feat of John Carpenter was prone to laziness.
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According to the historian, Pat Sajak committed a major blunder in the 1984 30th Anniversary matchup. As a result, he was not invited back. Anyone know what happened? Apparently the Youtube clip provided there picks up after this mistake.
In my experience, which is somewhat extensive here, serious quiz bowl players are the most unforgiving lot you can possibly imagine, and any mistake that occurs during any competition is the Worst Thing Evar. In their insular world, quiz bowl is everything. You don't have to dig very far in the Quizbowl Wiki http://qbwiki.com (http://qbwiki.com) to find jaw-droppingly self-important nonsense.
As a fellow quiz bowl moderator, I can attest to this- I've seen football players cry less over worse calls. I had one player answer a question in French just to be smarmy- I called him wrong and he complained for the rest of the match during segues.
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According to the historian, Pat Sajak committed a major blunder in the 1984 30th Anniversary matchup. As a result, he was not invited back. Anyone know what happened? Apparently the Youtube clip provided there picks up after this mistake.
In my experience, which is somewhat extensive here, serious quiz bowl players are the most unforgiving lot you can possibly imagine, and any mistake that occurs during any competition is the Worst Thing Evar. In their insular world, quiz bowl is everything. You don't have to dig very far in the Quizbowl Wiki http://qbwiki.com (http://qbwiki.com) to find jaw-droppingly self-important nonsense.
As a fellow quiz bowl moderator, I can attest to this- I've seen football players cry less over worse calls. I had one player answer a question in French just to be smarmy- I called him wrong and he complained for the rest of the match during segues.
What was the question and answer, and was there a specific answer it said to accept?
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The one controversy I am remotely familiar with (well, besides the recycling of questions in 1987) is 1997. There is a placeholder for it on QBWiki marked "1997 College Bowl Nationals finals scandal and prize withdrawal", although it could be referring to something else.
Apparently, here's what happened, based on a Usenet post to alt.college.college-bowl: the final was best 2-out-of-3 between Virginia and Harvard. Late in the first game, Harvard led 270-240, but Virginia answered a 10-point tossup and then got a 20-point bonus; "for 10 points each, name the parties that were the first to rule in Israel and India, both of which were voted out of power in 1996." The given answers were Labor (for Israel), called correct, and "INC" (for India, short for Indian National Congress), called incorrect; the "correct" answer was the "Congress party". Harvard now led 270-260 with seconds remaining; the moderator started reading the next 10-point tossup, a Harvard player buzzed in, answered along the lines of, "I have no idea" (costing Harvard 5 points for giving an incorrect answer before the moderator finished reading the question), and time expired, giving Harvard a 265-260 win.
Or did it? Virginia challenged the previous "incorrect" bonus answer, claiming that "Indian National Congress" and "Congress Party" were the same thing. After attempts to find a definitive answer failed (one report said that they even tried asking an Indian student from another team), they decided to ask a substitute 10-point bonus, which Virginia got right, so Virginia won by 5 points (and one of the Virginia players got all "in-your-face" about it). Keep in mind that had Virginia received the 10 points when the question was asked, the game would have been tied, and Harvard would not have buzzed in early in an attempt to run out the clock. In a normal game, this is bad enough, but remember, this was in the National Championship Final.