Scholars' Bowl (East Tennessee)

Scholars' Bowl is a televised competition sponsored by East Tennessee Public Television, Pellissippi State Community College, the University of Tennessee, and the Knoxville News-Sentinel. At different times, teams from Kentucky, Virginia, and North Carolina also competed in the tournament.

Format

In the 1980s and 1990s, Scholars' Bowl was played much like what was then standard for CBI games, with a variety of filler inserted to fill up the half-hour time slot. Its original host was the avuncular Hop Edwards (1985-1991, 1993), whose camera-friendliness did not always translate into perfect pronunciation (often to the amusement/fury of players). The original length of halves was 9 and 1/2 minutes. From 1985 to 1987, Scholars' Bowl was a double elimination tournament, but beginning in 1988 it became a single-elimination event. Scholars' Bowl was notable for reusing questions from previous broadcasts, and it was not unusual for teams to have the same questions multiple times over a series of games. Jim Kuehn (sic?) was the host in 1992, and 1994-2007 the show was hosted by Diana Morgan, a community relations person for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. Since 2008, Sanda Allyson, who has a knack for misprounouncing seemingly simple words, has hosted.

There are now apparently two timed halves, each nine and a half minutes in length, designed to fit the program into the correct time slot. Each tossup is worth ten points, and bonuses are twenty points with no bounceback. (In 1985 and 1986 there were also multiple-part bonuses worth twenty-five and thirty points.)

History

The competition is in its 25th year.

List of winners (and some runners-up)

• 1985 Jefferson County (winner), Morristown West (runner-up)
• 1986 Sullivan South (winner), Jefferson County (runner-up)
• 1987 Sullivan South (winner), Bearden (runner-up)
• 1988 Sullivan South (winner), Jefferson County (runner-up)
• 1989 Bearden (winner), Gibbs (runner-up)
• 1990 Morristown West (winner), Maryville (runner-up)
• 1991 Sullivan South (winner), Jefferson County (runner-up)
• 1992 Jefferson County
• 1993 Dobyns-Bennett
• 1994 Maryville
• 1995 Bell County
• 1996 Halls
• 1997 Webb School of Knoxville
• 1998 Webb School of Knoxville
• 1999 Webb School of Knoxville
• 2000 Morristown-Hamblen East
• 2001 Knox West
• 2002 Knox West
• 2003 Knox West
• 2004 Oak Ridge
• 2005 Smoky Mountain Home Education Association
• 2006
• 2007 Dobyns-Bennett
• 2008 Middlesboro (KY)
• 2009 Farragut (winner), Knox West (runner-up)