Difference between revisions of "Timeline of Quizbowl History"

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== 1953 ==
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A timeline of quizbowl history, with a focus on the game's development in the United States. For more targeted discussions of the game's history in other countries, see [[quizbowl in Canada]] or [[quizbowl in the United Kingdom]].
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__TOC__
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<!--
  
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* October 10: [[College Bowl]] debuts on the NBC radio network.
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Hello to any editors of this page. Here is a brief summary of the templates and formatting being employed:
  
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== 1970 ==
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1. The bulk of the content on this page consists of a table with two columns: one for high school history, and the other for collegiate. When there is an item that pertains to both or an item relating to middle school history, the box spans both columns.
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2. The beginning section ("Ancient", "Early History") uses a "Main page box" template, which is the same formatting employed on the main page and several of its maintenance pages. This allows use of a full-width header.
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3. The remainder of the page uses the "History table header" and "History table row" templates. The contents of these templates are formatted to look like table rows, so they should only be used within the <table></table> tags that wrap the that entire section.
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4. Both the header and row templates can take an argument of name "hs" and one of name "college", which place comments into one of the two columns. A single template can have both.
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5. The row templates also have arguments of name "both" and "ms", which span both columns and apply a color scheme.
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6. The row templates are intended to represent events in a specific year.
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7. The row templates should come in chronological order whenever possible - the current suggestion is to have the "both" rows come before "hs/college" rows, which should come before "ms" rows.
  
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*June 14: Final televised episode of [[College Bowl]] airs on NBC.
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Note to future CSS editors: the margin here is 4px all around instead of just 4px on top because the bottom portion of the page is a table and there is spacing on the tbody that cannot be squashed in MediaWiki sites.
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*Fall: Independent quizbowl circuit founded with the holding of the first [[Southeastern Invitational]] at [[Berry]] College.
 
  
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== 1977 ==
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Feel free to ping me in the discussion page if you have questions -Kevin Wang
  
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*Fall: [[College Bowl]] recruits writers from the Atlanta-area quizbowl circuit to begin its campus program.
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-->
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{{Main page box|margin=4px|content=
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{{Main page header|Ancient}}
 +
'''c. 32 AD'''
 +
:Chapter 70 of Suetonius's ''Life of Tiberius'' describes the emperor peppering expert grammarians with mythological trivia such as "Who was the mother of Hecuba?," "What name did Achilles have among the girls?," and "What were the Sirens accustomed to singing?" In context, this anecdote takes place sometime between the death of Sejanus in 31 AD and Tiberius's own death in 37. While there are many prior examples in ancient literature of riddles and similar, this is the oldest known example of asking difficult factual questions of presumed educated people for the amusement of those involved.
  
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== 1978 ==
+
:Note that, even though Suetonius observed over 1900 years ago that such questions are taking knowledge of mythology "to a silly and laughable extreme" ("usque ad ineptias atque derisum"), at least the first two have come up in quizbowl on multiple occasions.
  
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*Spring: The first College Bowl [[NCT]] is held. [[Stanford]] defeats [[Yale]] in the finals behind the play of [[Jon Reider]] and [[Ted Gioia (1970s)|Ted Gioia]].
+
{{Main page header|Early History}}
 +
'''1938'''
 +
*''Information Please'' (a panel quiz show) debuts on NBC radio, hosted by Clifton Fadiman.  The show will stay on radio until 1951.  In the summer of 1952, it will appear on television.
 +
** On the 17 May, 1943 episode, Boris Karloff and Jan Struther became the first on the show to use buzzers, since they were calling in from Hollywood to New York and thus unable to raise their hands to answer.
 +
'''1940'''
 +
*''[[Quiz Kids]]'' debuts on local Chicago radio. The show runs for 13 years, and other versions eventually pop up in New York, Canada, San Antonio, and Los Angeles.  One of the early winners in Chicago is young James Watson, future Nobel laureate and co-discoverer of the double helix nature of DNA.
  
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== 1983 ==
+
'''1945'''
 +
* The final season of BBC program ''[[Transatlantic Quiz]]'' is aired on the NBC Blue Radio Network. Hosted by Alastair Cooke, this show involved a panel of Americans competing with a panel of Brits via undersea cable to promote Anglo-American relations during the second World War.<ref name="Valhalla1">[https://www.facebook.com/CollegeBowlValhalla/posts/notes-on-the-origin-of-quiz-bowlweve-had-new-members-and-a-lot-of-new-views-late/1808242562568216/ CollegeBowlValhalla: Notes on the origin of quiz bowl]</ref>
 +
}}
 +
<table style="width:100%;border-spacing:4px 0;margin:0;">
 +
{{History table header|Start of High School Quizbowl|Start of College Quizbowl|top=true}}
  
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*Spring: 34 teams travel to Dallas for the [[1983 NAC|inaugural National Academic Championship]], the first school-based high school national. [[Walt Whitman]] defeats [[Upper Arlington]] in the finals match.
+
{{History table row|1946|hs=*''[[Campus Quiz]]'' debuts on WFIL Philadelphia radio. Also created by Butterworth, it is the first known interscholastic high school team-based quiz competition and involved high schools from in and around Philadelphia. It was hosted by Tom Moorehead and only seems to have run for one season, during which teams from recreation centers, hospitals, and military bases were brought in during school breaks.<ref name="Valhalla1"/>
 +
|college={{Pic|Campusquiz.jpg|Students wait outside a theatre as they prepare to watch ''Campus Quiz''}}
 +
*''[[Intercollegiate Quiz]]'' is created by Wally Butterworth for the Mutual Radio Network and is the first intercollegiate quizbowl competition. Two teams of three from geographically close colleges compete.<ref name="Valhalla1"/>
 +
}}
  
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== 1988 ==
+
{{History table row|1948|hs=* ''[[Top of the Form]]'' for British secondary schools debuts on BBC radio.
 +
* ''[[Scott Hi-Q]]'' (now Delco Hi-Q) begins in the suburbs of Philadelphia.}}
  
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*June 12-18: The [[1988 NAC|sixth NAC]] is held in New Orleans, LA. This is the first of seven years in which the NAC is televised under the sponsorship of Texaco.
+
{{History table row|1950|hs=* [[Bible Bowl]] organizer John P. Reynolds files U.S. patent #2,654,163 for the portable electronic lockout [[buzzer]] system.}}
 +
 +
{{History table row|1949|college=* An event by the name of ''Campus Quiz'' airs on WERD Atlanta and runs through at least 1950. It is unclear whether that this show, hosted by the nation's first black-owned radio station, is directly related to the show created by Wally Butterworth, who was a virulent racist and member of the KKK.<ref name="Valhalla1"/>}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1953|college=* October 10: ''[[College Bowl]]'' debuts on the NBC radio network. This show will run until 1955 and will introduce the [[tossup-bonus format]].}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1957|hs=* [[Varsity Quiz Bowl]] for Louisiana high schools begins its run on WYES-TV. It is one of the first non-College Bowl quiz programs in the nation and ends in 1991 after 36 seasons.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1959|college=* Directly inspired by its predecessor, ''G.E. College Bowl'' premiers on television on CBS. It moves to NBC in 1963.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1961|hs=* October 7: ''[[It's Academic]]'', a quiz show for Washington, DC-area high schools, debuts. It is currently the world's longest continuously running quiz show.
 +
* [[Reach for the Top]] begins on CBC affiliate Vancouver CBUT-TV, featuring Vancouver-area teams.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1962|hs=* ''Top of the Form'' is moved from BBC Radio 4 to BBC 1, becoming a television series.|college=* ''[[University Challenge]]'' premiers in the UK on ITV as an official spin-off of College Bowl.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1965|hs=* The first national [[Reach for the Top]] competition is held in Montreal. The event is nationally televised on CBC the following year.|college=* The earliest known [[packet sub]] invitational is held for College Bowl; there may have been another tournament the year prior and potentially more in the decade prior, but there is no concrete evidence of them happening.<ref name="Valhalla1"/>}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1968|hs=* ''[[Trans-World Top Team]]'', a cooperation between CBC and BBC featuring Canadian and British teams, runs for its sole season.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1969|hs=* ''[[Varsity Quiz]]'', a televised competition in Clark County, NV sponsored by the local Kiwanis club, begins. It is based on a contest in Anaheim, CA.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1970|college=*June 14: Final televised episode of ''[[College Bowl]]'' airs on NBC.
 +
*Fall: Independent quizbowl circuit founded with the holding of the first [[Southeastern Invitational]] at [[Berry]] College.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1976|hs=*[[Knowledge Bowl]] is created by the San Juan County school board in Durango, Colorado.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table header|college=The Advent of the NCT}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1977|college=*Fall: [[College Bowl]] recruits writers from the Atlanta-area quizbowl circuit to begin its campus program in affiliation with the Association of College Unions International (ACUI).}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1978|college=*Spring: The first College Bowl [[NCT]] is held. [[Stanford]] defeats [[Yale]] in the finals behind the play of [[Jon Reider]] and [[Ted Gioia (1970s)|Ted Gioia]].}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1979|college=*May 4: [[Emory]] defeats [[Davidson]] at the inaugural [[National Invitation Tournament]] (NIT). This national championship held at [[Emory]] and likely introduced the use of the [[swiss pair]] system to quizbowl. Though originally written by writers affiliated with College Bowl, later iterations would use packet sub. The final NIT would be held in 1985.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1981|hs=* April: first [[National Academic Super Bowl]] is run by the Duval County School District in Florida. The event inspires education secretary [[Terrel Bell]] to create the [[National Academic League]] a few years later.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1983|hs=*Spring: 34 teams travel to Dallas for the [[1983 NAC|inaugural National Academic Championship]], the first school-based high school national. [[Walt Whitman]] defeats [[Upper Arlington]] in the finals match.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1984|hs=*December 4: The first [[KMO]] virtual quiz competition is run by [[Academic Hallmarks]]. The contest continues to run annually until spring of 2013.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1987|college=*Fall: The first iteration of the [[Maryland]] [[housewrite]] tournament [[Terrapin]] is held. Though it has skipped several years since its inception, it remains one of the longest running series of tournaments. Terrapin XXXI (Terrapin Open) was mirrored in the [[2020-2021 season]].}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1988|hs=*June 12-18: The [[1988 NAC|sixth NAC]] is held in New Orleans, LA. This is the first of seven years in which the NAC is televised under the sponsorship of Texaco.
 
*June 19-25: ''The Texaco Star National Academic Championship'' airs on The Discovery Channel.
 
*June 19-25: ''The Texaco Star National Academic Championship'' airs on The Discovery Channel.
 +
*June: The last Super Bowl and first [[NTAE]] are held.
 +
|college=* The first [[All-American Invitational]] is held at [[Emory]], with [[Georgia Tech]] A defeating [[Emory]] A; it would have one more iteration in 1989. The tournament was run by the [[Independent Buzzer Association]], which had earlier run the [[US Open]], and many of its members would later become members in [[ACF]].}}
  
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== 1990 ==
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{{History table row|1989|college=* The [[Honda Campus All-Star Challenge]] (HSASC) is created by [[College Bowl]] to be played by HBCUs and still runs today. From its creation until 1996, the [[College Bowl Company]] controversially banned all teams which participated in the HSASC from playing in any other quizbowl [[tournaments]], including those not operated by their organization.}}
  
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*Fall: [[ACF]] founded by [[Carol Guthrie]], [[Ramesh Kannappan]], and [[John Nam]].
+
{{History table header|college=The Early Modern Era of college quizbowl}}
  
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*Spring: First [[ACF Regionals]] and [[ACF Nationals]] held. [[Tennessee]] defeats [[Georgia Tech]] to claim the championship.
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{{History table row|1990|college=*Spring: first Honda Campus All Star Challenge NCT is held on [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Entertainment_Television BET] and hosted by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clint_Holmes Clint Holmes].
 +
*Fall: [[ACF]] is founded by [[Carol Guthrie]], [[Ramesh Kannappan]], and [[John Nam]].}}
  
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== 1994 ==
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{{History table row|1991|college=*Spring: The first [[ACF Regionals]] and [[ACF Nationals]] are held. [[Tennessee]] defeats [[Georgia Tech]] to claim the championship.}}
  
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*June 11-17: The [[1994 NAC|twelfth NAC]] is held in Houston, TX. The televised rounds are hosted by Mark L. Wahlberg as part of a syndication deal which turned out to be the final season of the televised show.
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{{History table row|1994|bottom=true|hs=*June 11-17: The [[1994 NAC|twelfth NAC]] is held in Houston, TX. The televised rounds are hosted by Mark L. Wahlberg as part of a syndication deal which turned out to be the final season of the televised show.
−
*Summer: The seventh and final season of  ''The Texaco Star National Academic Championship'' airs nationwide on various local PBS and commercial stations.
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*Summer: The seventh and final season of  ''The Texaco Star National Academic Championship'' airs nationwide on various local PBS and commercial stations.}}
  
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== 1996 ==
+
{{History table row|1996|both=*Spring: [[NAQT]] is founded by [[Patrick Matthews]], [[David Frazee]], and others.}}
  
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*Spring: [[NAQT]] founded by [[Patrick Mathews]], [[David Frazee]], and others.
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{{History table row|1996|top=true|hs=*Spring: [[PACE]] is founded.|college=*November 22: First NAQT [[SCT]] tournament held.
−
*Spring: [[PACE]] founded.
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*The Honda Campus All-Star Challenge stops holding its National Championship games on BET and instead moves towards hosting a National Championship Tournament akin to College Bowl's. This is also the first year that participants in HCASC are allowed to play "licensed tournaments" other than HCASC - however, in order for an event to be considered "licensed", it had to sign a statement acknowledging that the College Bowl Company had a trademark on intercollegiate academic competition.
−
*November 22: First NAQT [[SCT]] tournament held.
+
}}
  
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== 1997 ==
+
{{History table row|1997|hs=*Fall: The first [[NAQT]] high school tournaments are hosted.|college=*January 24-25: The first NAQT [[ICT]] is held at Penn. [[Chicago]] defeats [[Harvard]] in the final by powering the last tossup of an overtime tiebreaker.
 +
*April 20: [[Virginia]] defeats [[Harvard]] in a controversial College Bowl [[NCT]] final. Incidents during the game itself as well as the revocation of the promised winners' prize afterwards spur Virginia to immediately announce that it will not be participating in [[College Bowl]] in the future.
 +
*Summer: An unknown number of teams play the first [[Virginia Open]], whose records have been lost. In 1999, this tournament would be succeeded by [[Chicago Open]], which would eventually become the capstone of the college quizbowl calendar.}}
  
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*January 24-25: First NAQT [[ICT]] held at Penn. [[Chicago]] defeats [[Harvard]] in the final by powering the last tossup of an overtime tiebreaker.
+
{{History table header|The Early Modern Era of high school quizbowl}}
−
*April 20: [[Virginia]] defeats [[Harvard]] in a controversial College Bowl [[NCT]] final. Incidents during the game itself as well as the revocation of the promised winners' prize afterwards spur Virginia to immediately announce that it will not be participating in [[College Bowl]] in the future.
+
 
 +
{{History table row|1998|hs=*June 19-20: The first [[PACE]] [[NSC]] is held at Case Western. [[State College]] defeats [[Henry Ford II]] to claim the first high school quizbowl national title of the "[[modern era of high school quizbowl|modern era]]."
 +
*[[NAQT]] planned to host the first [[HSNCT]] this year, but it was canceled due to lack of interest.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|1999|bottom=true|hs=*June 5-6: First [[HSNCT]] held at the University of Oklahoma, ending with [[Detroit Catholic Central]] defeating [[Walton]] for the title.|college=*April 24: [[Chicago]] wins ACF Nationals, completing the first [[Triple Crown]] season in history and finishing with an 88-0 record for their regular A team in non-College Bowl formats.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2000|both=*June: [[hsquizbowl.org]] founded.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2001|top=true|college=*November 3: The first [[ACF Fall]] held. It is now the most widely played college set of the year.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2005|hs=*June 12: [[Thomas Jefferson]] defeats [[State College]] in the PACE NSC final, completing what is still the only double-undefeated performance at HSNCT and NSC and an undefeated year in [[pyramidal]] formats.
 +
*Fall 2005: High school quizbowl starts in [[Quizbowl in Canada|Canada]].}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2006|hs=*May 22: The [[American Scholastic Competition Network]] [[Tournament of Champions]] is cancelled at the last second, abruptly ending an annual national tournament that had existed since 1987.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2008|hs=*June 14: [[HSAPQ]] is founded.
 +
*September 27: The first HSAPQ tournament is hosted at [[North Carolina]].|college=*April 29: The last [[NCT]] is held; [[Rochester]] wins.
 +
*June 3: [[College Bowl Company]] announces suspension of [[College Bowl]] operations; the [[HCASC]] continues nonetheless.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table header|college=The Modern Era of college quizbowl}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2009|hs=*June: The last [[Panasonic]] NTAE is held without Panasonic's financial backing; the tournament collapses soon after.|college=*April 26: [[Chicago]] defeats [[Brown]] in the finals of [[2009 ACF Nationals|ACF Nationals]] following Brown's victory over Stanford in a play-in game, unifying the [[ICT]] and [[ACF Nationals|Nationals]] championships.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table header|hs=The Modern Era of high school quizbowl}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2010|bottom=true|hs=*June 5-6: The [[2010 NSC]] is held. This is the first NSC that uses [[20/20]] format rather than the [[Old NSC format|three-quarter format]].
 +
*June 12-13: The inaugural [[NASAT]] is hosted at [[Vanderbilt]].
 +
*[[National History Bee and Bowl]] is founded by [[David Madden]] and others}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2011|ms=*May 7-8: The first [[MSNCT]] is held at Hyatt Regency O'Hare near Chicago.}}
 +
 
 +
{{History table row|2013|top=true|college=*March 20: NAQT announces that a website security review has found evidence of [[Andy Watkins]] accessing question material prior to three ICTs in which he participated. Four Harvard titles are revoked and Watkins is suspended from NAQT membership, resigning soon after.}}
  
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== 1998 ==
+
{{History table row|2014|bottom=true|hs=*May 3-4: The first [[SSNCT]] is held at the Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport.
 +
*May 31-June 1: [[LASA]] defeats [[St. John's]] to win the 2014 [[HSNCT]]. At 272 teams, it is by far the largest quizbowl tournament ever held to that point.
 +
*June 14-17: [[NTAE]] is revived after a four-year hiatus. It would last two years before not being held in 2016.|college=*April 12: [[Virginia]] wins [[2014 ACF Nationals|ACF Nationals]] outright. With their win against [[Yale]] at [[ICT]], they win both major collegiate championships, the first time the titles are unified since 2009.}}
  
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*June 19-20: First PACE [[NSC]] held at Case Western. [[State College]] defeats [[Henry Ford II]] to claim the first high school quizbowl national title of the "modern era."
+
{{History table row|2016|ms=*May 7-8: [[Middlesex Middle|Middlesex]] defeats [[Longfellow]] on the last tossup to win the [[2016 MSNCT]]. With 160 teams, it is the largest middle school quizbowl tournament ever held. }}
  
−
== 1999 ==
+
{{History table row|2017|top=true|hs=*May 26-28: The [[2017 HSNCT]] takes place in Atlanta, GA, with [[Hunter]] College High School defeating [[Detroit Catholic Central]] in the final. 304 teams take part as the HSNCT breaks its own record for the largest single-site quizbowl tournament ever.}}
  
−
*June 5-6: First [[HSNCT]] held at the University of Oklahoma, ending with [[Detroit Catholic Central]] defeating [[Walton]] for the title.
+
{{History table row|2018|hs=*May 25–27: The [[2018 HSNCT]] breaks the [[2017 HSNCT|previous]] [[HSNCT]]'s record as the largest single-site quiz bowl tournament ever, with 352 teams. The record has yet to be broken.}}
  
−
== 2000 ==
+
{{History table row|2019|bottom=true|hs=*June 8-9: [[TJHSST]] wins against [[James E. Taylor]] at that year's [[PACE NSC]] to become the second school to win two NSCs back-to-back. The only other school to achieve this feat was [[State College]].}}
  
−
*June: [[hsquizbowl.org]] founded.
+
{{History table row|2020|both=*March-May: The [[COVID-19 pandemic]] prompts the cancellation of almost all in-person quizbowl events across the country, including the [[NAQT]] and [[PACE]] National Championships for 2020. The [[2020 CCCT|2020 NAQT Community College Championship Tournament]] (February 28–29) is the only national championship held in-person in 2020.
 +
*Summer-Fall: The quizbowl circuit shifts online with [[online quizbowl]] becoming the primary medium of practice and competition.
 +
*November 8: Alex Trebek, host of the gameshow [[Jeopardy!]], passes away at the age of 80 after a long fight with pancreatic cancer. Alex's hosting of Jeopardy! has been cited as many players' motivation for joining quizbowl.}}
  
−
== 2008 ==
+
{{History table row|2020|top=true|college=*November 24: NBC announces its revival of [[College Bowl]] as a television show. Due to its format being altered to better suit television, it remains distant from pyramidal quizbowl.}}
  
−
*April 29: The last [[NCT]] is held; [[Rochester]] wins.
+
{{History table row|2021|college=*August 7-8: The [[2021 ACF Nationals]] is held in-person, becoming the first national championship tournament to not be held online since the [[CCCT|2020 CCCT]] a year and a half prior.}}
−
*June 3: [[College Bowl Company]] announces suspension of [[College Bowl]] operations; the [[HCASC]] continues nonetheless.
 
−
*June 14: [[HSAPQ]] founded.
 
−
*September 27: The first HSAPQ tournament is hosted at [[North Carolina]].
 
  
−
== 2009 ==
+
{{History table row|2022|hs=*June 18-19: [[Quizbowl in Liberia|Team Liberia]] attends the [[2022 NASAT]], becoming the first known African team to attend a pyramidal quizbowl tournament.}}
  
−
*June: The last [[Panasonic]] NTAE is held without Panasonic's financial backing; the tournament collapses soon after.
+
{{History table row|2023|bottom=true|hs=*June 10-11: [[TJHSST]] loses to [[Barrington]] in its fifth consecutive [[PACE NSC]] finals appearance, breaking the record for the longest streak of finals appearances at a high school national championship. Barrington's win would also allow them to unify the [[HSNCT]] and [[NSC]] titles for the first time since 2014.|college=*March 31-April 1: [[Waterloo]] wins the [[Division II]] title at the [[2023 ICT]], becoming the first Canadian team (and, by extension, the first non-US team) to win a national title at any level of mainstream quizbowl.}}
  
−
== 2010 ==
+
</table><!--
  
−
*June: The [[2010 NSC]] is held, abandoning the old three-quarter NSC format in favor of [[20/20]] rounds.
+
{{History table row|}}
−
*June: The inaugural [[NASAT]] is hosted at [[Vanderbilt]].
+
empty row template for copy-pasting
  
−
== 2013 ==
+
-->
 +
==References==
 +
<references/>
  
−
*March 20: NAQT announces that a website security review has found evidence of [[Andy Watkins]] accessing question material prior to three ICTs in which he participated. Four Harvard titles are revoked and Watkins is suspended from NAQT membership, resigning soon after.
+
[[Category:Quizbowl history]]
−
*May 25-26: [[LASA]] defeats [[Ladue]] to win the 2013 [[HSNCT]]. At 256 teams, it is by far the largest quizbowl tournament ever held.
 

Latest revision as of 10:12, 16 September 2023

A timeline of quizbowl history, with a focus on the game's development in the United States. For more targeted discussions of the game's history in other countries, see quizbowl in Canada or quizbowl in the United Kingdom.

Ancient

c. 32 AD

Chapter 70 of Suetonius's Life of Tiberius describes the emperor peppering expert grammarians with mythological trivia such as "Who was the mother of Hecuba?," "What name did Achilles have among the girls?," and "What were the Sirens accustomed to singing?" In context, this anecdote takes place sometime between the death of Sejanus in 31 AD and Tiberius's own death in 37. While there are many prior examples in ancient literature of riddles and similar, this is the oldest known example of asking difficult factual questions of presumed educated people for the amusement of those involved.
Note that, even though Suetonius observed over 1900 years ago that such questions are taking knowledge of mythology "to a silly and laughable extreme" ("usque ad ineptias atque derisum"), at least the first two have come up in quizbowl on multiple occasions.

Early History

1938

  • Information Please (a panel quiz show) debuts on NBC radio, hosted by Clifton Fadiman. The show will stay on radio until 1951. In the summer of 1952, it will appear on television.
    • On the 17 May, 1943 episode, Boris Karloff and Jan Struther became the first on the show to use buzzers, since they were calling in from Hollywood to New York and thus unable to raise their hands to answer.

1940

  • Quiz Kids debuts on local Chicago radio. The show runs for 13 years, and other versions eventually pop up in New York, Canada, San Antonio, and Los Angeles. One of the early winners in Chicago is young James Watson, future Nobel laureate and co-discoverer of the double helix nature of DNA.

1945

  • The final season of BBC program Transatlantic Quiz is aired on the NBC Blue Radio Network. Hosted by Alastair Cooke, this show involved a panel of Americans competing with a panel of Brits via undersea cable to promote Anglo-American relations during the second World War.[1]

Start of High School Quizbowl

Start of College Quizbowl

1946
  • Campus Quiz debuts on WFIL Philadelphia radio. Also created by Butterworth, it is the first known interscholastic high school team-based quiz competition and involved high schools from in and around Philadelphia. It was hosted by Tom Moorehead and only seems to have run for one season, during which teams from recreation centers, hospitals, and military bases were brought in during school breaks.[1]
 1946
Campusquiz.jpg
Above:
Students wait outside a theatre as they prepare to watch Campus Quiz
  • Intercollegiate Quiz is created by Wally Butterworth for the Mutual Radio Network and is the first intercollegiate quizbowl competition. Two teams of three from geographically close colleges compete.[1]
1948
  • Top of the Form for British secondary schools debuts on BBC radio.
  • Scott Hi-Q (now Delco Hi-Q) begins in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
1950
  • Bible Bowl organizer John P. Reynolds files U.S. patent #2,654,163 for the portable electronic lockout buzzer system.
1949
  • An event by the name of Campus Quiz airs on WERD Atlanta and runs through at least 1950. It is unclear whether that this show, hosted by the nation's first black-owned radio station, is directly related to the show created by Wally Butterworth, who was a virulent racist and member of the KKK.[1]
1953
1957
  • Varsity Quiz Bowl for Louisiana high schools begins its run on WYES-TV. It is one of the first non-College Bowl quiz programs in the nation and ends in 1991 after 36 seasons.
1959
  • Directly inspired by its predecessor, G.E. College Bowl premiers on television on CBS. It moves to NBC in 1963.
1961
  • October 7: It's Academic, a quiz show for Washington, DC-area high schools, debuts. It is currently the world's longest continuously running quiz show.
  • Reach for the Top begins on CBC affiliate Vancouver CBUT-TV, featuring Vancouver-area teams.
1962
  • Top of the Form is moved from BBC Radio 4 to BBC 1, becoming a television series.
 1962
1965
  • The first national Reach for the Top competition is held in Montreal. The event is nationally televised on CBC the following year.
 1965
  • The earliest known packet sub invitational is held for College Bowl; there may have been another tournament the year prior and potentially more in the decade prior, but there is no concrete evidence of them happening.[1]
1968
  • Trans-World Top Team, a cooperation between CBC and BBC featuring Canadian and British teams, runs for its sole season.
1969
  • Varsity Quiz, a televised competition in Clark County, NV sponsored by the local Kiwanis club, begins. It is based on a contest in Anaheim, CA.
1970
1976
  • Knowledge Bowl is created by the San Juan County school board in Durango, Colorado.

The Advent of the NCT

1977
  • Fall: College Bowl recruits writers from the Atlanta-area quizbowl circuit to begin its campus program in affiliation with the Association of College Unions International (ACUI).
1978
1979
  • May 4: Emory defeats Davidson at the inaugural National Invitation Tournament (NIT). This national championship held at Emory and likely introduced the use of the swiss pair system to quizbowl. Though originally written by writers affiliated with College Bowl, later iterations would use packet sub. The final NIT would be held in 1985.
1981
1983
1984
  • December 4: The first KMO virtual quiz competition is run by Academic Hallmarks. The contest continues to run annually until spring of 2013.
1987
  • Fall: The first iteration of the Maryland housewrite tournament Terrapin is held. Though it has skipped several years since its inception, it remains one of the longest running series of tournaments. Terrapin XXXI (Terrapin Open) was mirrored in the 2020-2021 season.
1988
  • June 12-18: The sixth NAC is held in New Orleans, LA. This is the first of seven years in which the NAC is televised under the sponsorship of Texaco.
  • June 19-25: The Texaco Star National Academic Championship airs on The Discovery Channel.
  • June: The last Super Bowl and first NTAE are held.
 1988
1989

The Early Modern Era of college quizbowl

1990
1991
1994
  • June 11-17: The twelfth NAC is held in Houston, TX. The televised rounds are hosted by Mark L. Wahlberg as part of a syndication deal which turned out to be the final season of the televised show.
  • Summer: The seventh and final season of The Texaco Star National Academic Championship airs nationwide on various local PBS and commercial stations.
1996
1996
  • Spring: PACE is founded.
 1996
  • November 22: First NAQT SCT tournament held.
  • The Honda Campus All-Star Challenge stops holding its National Championship games on BET and instead moves towards hosting a National Championship Tournament akin to College Bowl's. This is also the first year that participants in HCASC are allowed to play "licensed tournaments" other than HCASC - however, in order for an event to be considered "licensed", it had to sign a statement acknowledging that the College Bowl Company had a trademark on intercollegiate academic competition.
1997
  • Fall: The first NAQT high school tournaments are hosted.
 1997
  • January 24-25: The first NAQT ICT is held at Penn. Chicago defeats Harvard in the final by powering the last tossup of an overtime tiebreaker.
  • April 20: Virginia defeats Harvard in a controversial College Bowl NCT final. Incidents during the game itself as well as the revocation of the promised winners' prize afterwards spur Virginia to immediately announce that it will not be participating in College Bowl in the future.
  • Summer: An unknown number of teams play the first Virginia Open, whose records have been lost. In 1999, this tournament would be succeeded by Chicago Open, which would eventually become the capstone of the college quizbowl calendar.

The Early Modern Era of high school quizbowl

1998
  • June 19-20: The first PACE NSC is held at Case Western. State College defeats Henry Ford II to claim the first high school quizbowl national title of the "modern era."
  • NAQT planned to host the first HSNCT this year, but it was canceled due to lack of interest.
1999 1999
  • April 24: Chicago wins ACF Nationals, completing the first Triple Crown season in history and finishing with an 88-0 record for their regular A team in non-College Bowl formats.
2000
2001
  • November 3: The first ACF Fall held. It is now the most widely played college set of the year.
2005
  • June 12: Thomas Jefferson defeats State College in the PACE NSC final, completing what is still the only double-undefeated performance at HSNCT and NSC and an undefeated year in pyramidal formats.
  • Fall 2005: High school quizbowl starts in Canada.
2006
2008
  • June 14: HSAPQ is founded.
  • September 27: The first HSAPQ tournament is hosted at North Carolina.
 2008

The Modern Era of college quizbowl

2009
  • June: The last Panasonic NTAE is held without Panasonic's financial backing; the tournament collapses soon after.
 2009

The Modern Era of high school quizbowl

2010
2011
  • May 7-8: The first MSNCT is held at Hyatt Regency O'Hare near Chicago.
2013
  • March 20: NAQT announces that a website security review has found evidence of Andy Watkins accessing question material prior to three ICTs in which he participated. Four Harvard titles are revoked and Watkins is suspended from NAQT membership, resigning soon after.
2014
  • May 3-4: The first SSNCT is held at the Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport.
  • May 31-June 1: LASA defeats St. John's to win the 2014 HSNCT. At 272 teams, it is by far the largest quizbowl tournament ever held to that point.
  • June 14-17: NTAE is revived after a four-year hiatus. It would last two years before not being held in 2016.
 2014
  • April 12: Virginia wins ACF Nationals outright. With their win against Yale at ICT, they win both major collegiate championships, the first time the titles are unified since 2009.
2016
  • May 7-8: Middlesex defeats Longfellow on the last tossup to win the 2016 MSNCT. With 160 teams, it is the largest middle school quizbowl tournament ever held.
2017
  • May 26-28: The 2017 HSNCT takes place in Atlanta, GA, with Hunter College High School defeating Detroit Catholic Central in the final. 304 teams take part as the HSNCT breaks its own record for the largest single-site quizbowl tournament ever.
2018
  • May 25–27: The 2018 HSNCT breaks the previous HSNCT's record as the largest single-site quiz bowl tournament ever, with 352 teams. The record has yet to be broken.
2019
2020
  • March-May: The COVID-19 pandemic prompts the cancellation of almost all in-person quizbowl events across the country, including the NAQT and PACE National Championships for 2020. The 2020 NAQT Community College Championship Tournament (February 28–29) is the only national championship held in-person in 2020.
  • Summer-Fall: The quizbowl circuit shifts online with online quizbowl becoming the primary medium of practice and competition.
  • November 8: Alex Trebek, host of the gameshow Jeopardy!, passes away at the age of 80 after a long fight with pancreatic cancer. Alex's hosting of Jeopardy! has been cited as many players' motivation for joining quizbowl.
2020
  • November 24: NBC announces its revival of College Bowl as a television show. Due to its format being altered to better suit television, it remains distant from pyramidal quizbowl.
2021
  • August 7-8: The 2021 ACF Nationals is held in-person, becoming the first national championship tournament to not be held online since the 2020 CCCT a year and a half prior.
2022
  • June 18-19: Team Liberia attends the 2022 NASAT, becoming the first known African team to attend a pyramidal quizbowl tournament.
2023
  • June 10-11: TJHSST loses to Barrington in its fifth consecutive PACE NSC finals appearance, breaking the record for the longest streak of finals appearances at a high school national championship. Barrington's win would also allow them to unify the HSNCT and NSC titles for the first time since 2014.
 2023
  • March 31-April 1: Waterloo wins the Division II title at the 2023 ICT, becoming the first Canadian team (and, by extension, the first non-US team) to win a national title at any level of mainstream quizbowl.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 CollegeBowlValhalla: Notes on the origin of quiz bowl
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