National Academic Super Bowl

An amazing event discovered by Matt Weiner while researching quizbowl on Lexis-Nexis, this tournament involved six-person high school quizbowl teams standing on the football field at Sandalwood High School in Jacksonville, answering speed tossups such as "Name the longest river in Europe." Apparently, all-star teams from within metropolitan public school systems were permitted to participate.

Over four thousand "fans" filled the stands to watch the finals in 1984, and marching bands, cheerleaders, and television cameras were present. Sponsored by the Duval County School Board and directed by superintendant Herb A. Sang, it involved 18 teams from 8 states.

The 1983 tournament included sitting Secretary of Education Terrel Bell as a spectator.

The article implies that the event was founded in 1976 for Jacksonville-area public schools and became a national tournament later. The Duval County public schools all-star team won the tournament in 1984 as well as in "two of the three years" prior to that. The second-place team in 1984 was the Birmingham, AL all-stars.

By 1987, the format had changed such that all the non-Duval teams played a regular invitational tournament, whose winner faced the Duval County all-stars in the Super Bowl. In both 1987 and 1988, the tournament had eighteen teams, and Duval's opponent was the Fayette County all-stars from Kentucky. The 1987 Super Bowl was televised on The Learning Channel.

The 1988 Fayette team included Brian Reed, Eric Brooks, Greg Koerner, and Andrew Joseph from Lafayette, Brennan Gaunce of Henry Clay, and Jason Hall, Jeanie Krause, and Akbar Aksan from Tates Creek.

It is unknown how long this tournament lasted after 1988 or who else won it. What is known is that the idea of playing quizbowl on a football field with marching bands is awesome.