Utterly Trivial (and Totally Worth It)

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 19:15:00 +0000

Utterly Trivial (and Totally Worth It) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/01/2018 - 13:15

Eric Gershon

The band was back together. Three-quarters of it, anyway.

Children of a Lesser Godzilla — an iteration of the 1991 CU Trivia Bowl’s winning team, The Godzillas Must Be Crazy — reunited Dick Shahan (Engl’71; PhD’85), Sandy McVie and Dave Wallack, plus fresh recruit Harry Hawthorne (DistSt’74). The occasion, in April, was a three-day revival, 50 years after its debut, of the CU Trivia Bowl, the live, game show-like trivia tournament that helped define cultural life at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ starting in the late 1960s.

“On Friday morning of each trivia bowl week, there would be people standing in line outside the UMC to get seats,” said Shahan, a retired Boulder librarian who played in about 15 bowls starting in 1975.

In its heyday, the bowl attracted hundreds of players from around campus and far afield. Modeled on the relatively earnest GE College Bowl, popular nationwide in the 1960s, CU’s version emphasized pop culture: Sports, music, show business and the like.

Over five days each spring, 64 teams faced off in a bracket-style contest under bright lights in the Glenn Miller Ballroom — for bragging rights, a trophy with Mickey Mouse ears and the sheer fun of it.

The bowl’s last regular year was 1993, amid fading interest.

But every so often, the die-hards reconvene. Paul Bailey (EnvDes’83; MA’94) and Dan Rector (Edu’73) led the latest effort.

If turnout was modest and the setting less Hollywoodesque — 16 teams of four tested their mettle over three days at the Williams Village Center — it was a delight to savor for Shahan.

His powers of instant association were on display when the moderator listed about a dozen female song characters and asked which recording artist’s ouvre contained them all.

“Bruce Springsteen!” he called out — correctly — after buzzing in.

Godzilla made it to the quarterfinals. In the end, Some Guys Walk Into a Bar, a team of conspicuously young participants, won.

Shahan was okay with that. The latest bowl had done its job.

“It brought it all back again,” he said.

For Dick Shahan’s commentary and sample questions, visit here.

Photo by Jerry Stowall, from Coloradan Collection, CU Heritage Center

Die-hard veterans of CU’s Trivia Bowl test their mettle again.

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Trivia Master Tells All

Anonymous — Tue, 22 May 2018 22:45:28 +0000

Trivia Master Tells All Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/22/2018 - 16:45

Dick Shahan

The Godzillas Must Be Crazy, 1991 winners: Dick Shahan, Sandy McVie, Steve Coppel and Dave Wallack

Question: What originated at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ in 1968, attracted participants locally and then from all across America and became THE event of its kind in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s?

Answer: The CU Trivia Bowl.

Former participants celebrated a 50th-anniversary reunion on April 5-7, 2018. Scroll to the bottom for sample questions.

A little background

G.E. College Bowl

The Trivia Bowl was begun by CU professor Dr. David Bowen, and is patterned after TV’s G.E. COLLEGE BOWL. On that show, four-person teams from two universities competed by answering “serious” toss-up and bonus questions. But the CU Trivia Bowl celebrates a love of pop culture, and offers three key things: A challenge for competitors, entertainment for the audience and fun for everyone.

The challenging questions are in five categories: Pop culture and show business, pop literature, pop music, sports and miscellaneous. Team names are intentionally humorous, such as Boulder County Home for the Bewildered, Lemming Children on Crack and Jerry’s Kids.

In 1968, 32 teams competed. By 1983, 100 teams took a “seeding test” to limit the field to 64 teams. Audiences attended the Monday-Friday matches, all held in the Glenn Miller Ballroom, and by Friday it was standing-room-only. Originally, CU’s Program Council funded the event and brought in big-name musical artists to perform — The Association, Chubby Checker, Bo Diddley and Herman’s Hermits, to name a few.

Renae Foxhoven team during a bonus: Don Jacobs, Bob Downs, Leonard Farhni, Doug Russell

There’s nothing quite like playing in the CU Trivia Bowl. The competition is top-notch and fierce — many Bowl competitors believe that there’s nothing “trivial” about pop-culture trivia. It’s both exciting and enjoyable, and the sheer zaniness of the event is something to behold. The team I was on, The Godzillas Must Be Crazy, made it to the semi-finals twice and to the finals four times before we finally won, in 1991. It’s also rewarding to be voted into the Trivia Bowl Hall of Fame, which my teammates were in 1985, 1986 and 1990, and which I was in 1987. What a memorable moment it was to stand there on the ballroom stage with them and hoist high the championship trophy, complete with Mickey Mouse Club ears on top!

The Trivia Bowl also was memorable because it occurred the week after spring break and the week before the Conference on World Affairs. So we went from vacation to five days of absolute fun to five days of meaningful discussions of important nationwide and international issues and events — all in three weeks’ time. It was a great time of year!

The 50th-Anniversary CU Trivia Bowl Reunion, held at the Williams Village Center, captured the essence of the event in its heyday. The Varsity Bowl, for competitors under 24, was won by If You Can’t Handle Me At My, a two-person team of Jason Frengi and Elliot Harnagel. Some Guys Walk Into A Bar, with Mark Vincent, Diego Frey, David Gatch and Steve Conklin, won the spirited competition for the reunion participants. At the reunion dinner, held at the Fate Brewing Company, competitors shared fond and humorous memories of the event.

It was all extremely enjoyable, a celebration of something special and uniquely ��ƷSM��ӰƬ.

Dick Shahan (Engl’71; Ph.D’85) is retired from the Boulder Public Library and lives in Boulder.

How’s Your Trivia? Here are five trivia toss-up questions. Answers below.

1. What is the name of the folk group that formed at ��ƷSM��ӰƬ in 1964, and had two hits with “Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)” and “Beans in My Ears”?

2. This group formed in Boulder in 1969 and had a hit called “Did You Boogie (With Your Baby).” Who is the group?

3. In 1970, a Denver group called The Moonrakers changed their name to a mountain west of Boulder, and had a huge hit. What’s the name of the group, and their hit?

4. The soundtracks to Divorce American Style, The Electric Horseman, The Firm, The Graduate, and Three Days of the Condor were composed by what graduate of ��ƷSM��ӰƬ?

5. What do The Grateful Dead, Paul McCartney, John Cougar Mellencamp, The Rolling Stones, Leon Russell, Bob Seger, and The Who all have in common?

Answers:

1. The Serendipity Singers.

2. Flash Cadillac & the Continental Kids.

3. Sugarloaf. “Green-Eyed Lady.”

4. Dave Grusin

5. They all performed at CU’s Folsom Field.

A first-person account by a veteran of the CU Trivia Bowl

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