Turkey Leg Match

The Turkey Leg Match occurred at the 2006 Chicago Open. It was a highly anticipated match between teams led by Chris Borglum and Matt Weiner, who had earlier spent the summer debating the 2006 Israel–Hezbollah War and other Jewish issues.

Prelude

In a hsquizbowl forums topic from the summer of 2006 entitled "War: Hezbollah-Israel-Lebanon-Syria-Iran," Chris Borglum posted that he believed that Israel “acted recklessly and with clear disregard for human life.” Matt Weiner sarcastically responded to Borglum’s “enlightened analysis” and later asked if he was “too high” to realize what he was saying. This led Borglum to respond “I like the herb. I have no shame about it and am unafraid of the stigma that some attach to its users. However, this admittance no more implies that anything I say must be nutty because I'm a wacky stoner than your girth implies you miss the nuances of my points when you can't see over the oversized turkey legs you gnaw while perusing my posts.” Weiner, who believed that Borglum was following him around the board, then responded “If you'd like to continue this discussion in real life this weekend, feel free. Just make sure to suspend your vocalizations during the many, many bonuses my team will be hearing in our game with you.”

The Match

Round 9 of the 2006 Chicago Open pitted Weiner, Mike Sorice, Andrew Ullsperger, and Kelly Tourdot against Borglum, Seth Kendall, Billy Beyer, and Sean Platzer. After getting Tossup 18 on Sukkoth and 20'ing the bonus, Weiner's team trailed by ten points. Platzer responded by first-lining Tossup 19 on Louis-Philippe and Borglum's team 20'd the bonus, meaning they were up by 40 going into the last tossup. Weiner's team correctly answered Shakuntala on Tossup 20, but was able to only 10 the bonus. Borglum's team emerged victorious, 220-200.

Aftermath

Immediately after the match, Weiner burst out of the room while the other seven players shook hands. Despite the loss, Weiner's team finished the tournament with a 9-3 record. Borglum’s team finished the tournament with a 7-5 record. Later on the forums, Weiner promised “In the future I will try not to eat so many turkey legs during games, as the grease makes it hard to grip the buzzer properly.”

Later that summer at UTC's Moc Masters tournament, a team of Billy Beyer, Melissa Munkel, Doug Robeson, and Travis Vitello used the team name “Oversized Turkey Legs” en route to victory.

In a 2016 hsquizbowl forums post about the “Greatest Upsets in Quizbowl History,” Bruce Arthur called it “One of the big upsets in college quizbowl history.”