UTC
| The University of Tennessee - Chattanooga | |
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|---|---|
| Location: Chattanooga, TN | |
| Current President or Coach | Jacob Vannucci |
| National championships | |
| NAQT Page | link |
The UTC Academic Trivia Association is a student organization that competes in various academic and trash tournaments across the Southeast while hosting a number of its own. Its location is ideal for hosting tournaments since it is within driving distance to many schools, a mere two-hour drive from Atlanta, Nashville, and Knoxville.
It is most well-known as the former home of coach Charlie Steinhice, a former player who is now one of the most recognizable figures on the circuit as the editor of many, many tournaments over the past decade.
Tournaments
UTC is known for hosting both academic and trash trivia tournaments. It used to host the Center of the Known Universe Open, or COTKU, as well as the Big Lots trash tournament from fall 2004 to fall 2009, which was usually a mirror of FOGHAT. In the Spring, UTC hosted the Moon Pie Classic, an academic packet-submission tournament, and its counterpart trash tournament, the RC Cola Classic.
UTC is also the home of Sword Bowl, which was originally a mirror of Penn Bowl but has since become a separate tournament which runs during the same weekend. UTC was offered the chance to mirror Penn Bowl again in 2008 after inquiring about obtaining the packets, but did not respond.
The club also hosts two major high school tournaments which have drawn teams from across the country. During the fall it hosts the Trevor's Trivia: Bob Selcer Memorial High School Quizbowl Tournament, named for a UTC alumnus, and in the spring it hosts the Dennis Haskins Open, which is endorsed by Haskins, a UTC alumnus who may be better known as Principal Belding from Saved by the Bell. Haskins provides autographed photos for the winners of the tournament and made a introductory video for the 2007 iteration of the tournament.
During the summer, UTC usually hosts an open mirror of the HSNCT as well as Summer Camp, a trash tournament.
UTC and Steinhice have also hosted many other tournaments, including ACF Fall, ACF Regionals, and NAQT Sectionals when other hosts could not be found for the region.
The club has inherited the annual TrashMasters tournament, one of the premier independent trash tournaments in the country.
Since Steinhice began coaching the UTC team, it has certainly hosted more quizbowl tournaments than any other club in the country, and now that his retirement is probable, it will likely stop hosting in the near future.
Current Members
- Jacob Vannucci, Senior
- Ashley Rousselle, Senior
- Tiffany Willis, Junior
- Edward Henderson, Junior
- Rishabh Shah, Junior
- Shane Sawyer, Grad Student