<p>I know I’m dating myself, but who remembers the GE College Bowl? (For the youngsters, the 1950s-60s TV show pitted teams of four from two colleges against one another answering academic-type questions.) </p>
<p>I remember watching it when Allen Luden was host. In the pre-USNews days, I always thought that any college that was on the show was an elite school. </p>
<p>Anyway, the chart is fun and a good reminder that there are plenty of brilliant kids at nearly every school. The upset victory of Agnes Scott over Princeton is pretty famous, but there are other upsets, blowouts, and surprises. It’s also interesting to see who was and wans’t invited:</p>
<p>I enjoyed watching that, but that was such a long time ago</p>
<p>Texaco used to sponsor a Houston area high school bowl. When they dropped the sponsorship, it ended -sigh. It was fun to see the high school cheerleaders support the brainy kids.</p>
<p>I loved that show! It was partly my devotion to College Bowl as a kid that later led me to tryout and win on Jeopardy as an adult.</p>
<p>The College Bowl appearance that is most memorable for me was Bryn Mawr. Week after week those four Bryn Mawr girls were mopping the floor with all sorts of all-male or mostly-male teams from other colleges. So what would it take to defeat those four smart girls? Another four smart girls, that’s what. For Bryn Mawr’s final match they brought out a team from Barnard for an all-female contest. Barnard prevailed, preventling Bryn Mawr from retiring undefeated.</p>
<p>coureur,
I absolutely loved College Bowl and particularly remember an appearance by Barnard. There was a young woman on the team named Robin Casey, and after watching her performance my brothers and I used to joke about it because she was so fast on the buzzer. Allen Ludden-“What is…” (buzzer sounds) “Barnard, Casey” and she would get the answer right.</p>
<p>One of my thrills in watching College Bowl was being a kid and sometimes knowing the answer that the big college students were being asked. The most memorable of these was a match that ended in a dead heat (I don’t remember which schools were playing), so they had one additional toss-up question to break the tie and determine who would come back the following week:</p>
<p>Q: What non-physical characteristic is shared by these three bird species - the Carolina parakeet, the Labrador duck, and the great auk?</p>
<p>A: They are all extinct.</p>
<p>I remember shouting “Extinct!!” at the television.</p>
<p>I’ve loved being involved with Scholars Bowl in HS and now my son is doing Quiz Bowl at college. He’s very quick on the buzzer. If you go to these geeky competitions the coaches and extra students in the audience are all air-buzzering their answers in.</p>
<p>One of the high points in my life was my first New York City trip (I was 13)-my aunt took me and we did all the touristy things. The best part was going to NBC and being part of the audience for The College Bowl. I think Brandeis was the winner that match. It was thrilling!</p>
<p>Loved College Bowl! I live in MA, and on our local PBS, we get a NH High School version of it called Granite State Challenge. I still watch that from time to time though as an alleged adult I can no longer feel so smug about knowing some of the answers.</p>
<p>There still do exist College “Quiz Bowl” teams…just not televised… D joined UMD’s team this year as a “lowly” freshman, although she spends most of her time being speechless about what the “experienced” people on the team know and can do. (One of the members was a College Jeopardy winner!) They went to a tournament at William and Mary earlier this year, and I know there were teams from about 10-15 Eastern states there. I’m partial to this stuff myself, so I’m hoping she sticks with it!!</p>
<p>Wow–no wonder I love CC–it’s full of geeks like me! I, too, used to watch College Bowl and I was also a HUGE fan of Jeopardy. In fact, one of my regrets in life was that I never got a chance to be on the show–and now that my reaction time has slowed, my only shot is hoping that they create a Senior Jeopardy competition–I would fly out to LA in a MINUTE to try out!!!</p>
<p>When I was in high school, our local version of this was a radio show called “Quiz’Em on the Air”, in which I participated.</p>
<p>Guess I’m a member of the geek brigade, too. I was on a local show, “Junior High Quiz.” We had a kid who could spell anything; as soon as he heard the word “spell,” he’d buzz in and the host would already be pronouncing the spelling word. This technique worked through at least 4 matches. During the championship round, the regular host was pregnant and on leave. The substitute, shocked by the early buzzer, just froze, saying "spell . . . " The judge threw the question out and we lost by just that margin.</p>
<p>I too loved college bowl!! Our HS also had a similar team, with a local (regional) competition that was filmed in NYC at NBC. Now, a generation later, my s’s HS also has a similar team with a show filmed down here on Sat mornings called “Hi Q”. I watch it whever I am up early enough on a Sat. morning to see it. It is one even before the morning news. Not sure the sun is even up then!</p>
<p>We watched College Bowl religiously in my family when I was growing up. Many years later, one of my closest friends happened to mention that she had been on a College Bowl team from her school in the 1960s. I remember screaming, “Why didn’t you ever tell me?” And she said she didn’t know anyone remembered CB! I just e-mailed her the link from the OP.</p>
<p>Recently my S was on his HS’s team for our local televised HS quiz bowl. It was great fun.</p>