1991 NAC
Won by Dorman over Collegiate in a 360-345 final. Third place was Detroit Catholic Central, who lost to Collegiate in a 290-255 semifinal.
The tournament-deciding tossup was "What was Jesus doing when his disciples came to tell him the stormy sea was threatening to drown him?" (Answer: Sleeping.)
Other questions from this tournament include "During World War I, what American industrialist said he wanted to ``get the boys out of the trenches`` by Christmas?," "In biblical times, a famous aromatic resin known as ``balm`` came from what region east of the Jordan River?," and "What is the correct chemical formula for sodium chlorate?"
After the tournament, Beall referred to the third-place DCC team as "the best team I have ever seen."
Jim Paluszak was added to the NAC Hall of Fame after this tournament.
The tournament lasted from June 9 to June 14 at Rice University, and included 92 schools representing 32 states and the Virgin Islands. Dorman received $50,000 in scholarships and Collegiate $25,000.
The Sullivan team made a mid-tournament exit from the official dorm due to loud partying from other tournament participants.
The last four rounds of single-elimination were televised on PBS.
The coach of Grand Rapids offered this commentary on the televised rounds in a newspaper article:
| “ | City High's elimination prompted Bentley to suggest that the finals are a "media event" - not driven by curriculum like the state and district matches.
"The last 13 matches are done for national television. Texaco syndicates the programs with 21 million viewers lined up to see them. They switched the kind of questions from academic to trivia so the TV audience could answer and play along," he said. "There was a set of questions that we knew little about. There was nothing about Greek culture or ancient history. We don't study trivia." |
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