Charles Harrington/University Photography
From left to right, Jonathan Lee, Kenny Peskin, Dwight Kidder, Shelby Dietz and Boglarka Petruska practice in loft 2 of Willard Straight Hall for the College Bowl International tournament in Tempe, Ariz., this Sunday.
By Jonathan Laurence '98
Question: What was the ruling family of 15th century Milan? Answer: The Sforza family.
That's the type of fact -- some would say trivia -- that the 20 student members of the Cornell Academic Quiz Organization (CAQO) bone up on Thursday evenings in a buzzer-system-wired Rockefeller Hall classroom.
Continuing a 10-year tradition, the organization once again has qualified for the College Bowl International (CBI) tournament -- this Sunday in Tempe, Ariz. -- to test their trivia mastery. Five student members -- four undergraduates and one graduate student -- will travel west as representatives of the upstate New York region. To qualify, the Cornell team won the Regional College Bowl Tournament in Rochester in February.
Although College Bowl competition at Cornell has existed, informally, for about 17 years, CAQO is enjoying just its second year as an official student organization. Run initially out of the Cornell Programming Board in Willard Straight Hall, organizational responsibility was taken over by students in 1994. The main funding for the group comes from the provost's office, the Student Assembly and also from tournament fees paid by outside participants in College Bowl competitions held on campus.
Club members compete in roughly a dozen tournaments each year, with about a quarter of them taking place at Cornell.
The two major national competitions for College Bowl teams are administered by the CBI and by the Academic Competitions Foundation (ACF). In addition to the CBI tournament, club members compete in the semiannual ACF tournaments, as well. The competitions sponsored by the two organizations differ somewhat. For both, an average match consists of about 50 factoids; roughly half are "tossup questions," open to either team, and the other half are "bonus questions." But while literature, history and science are common subjects for both organizations' events, a preponderance of current events, sports and pop culture questions differentiate a CBI from an ACF competition, which is "more academic and fine-arts based," said Richard Dunlap, a Cornell team member and Ph.D. candidate in math.
How does the team prepare for tournaments?
"There are players who sit down and read almanacs," said Jesse Becker, a freshman in engineering, "but I've never done that."
Becker, who was recruited by the CAQO leadership while he was with his high school College Bowl team at a University of Maryland tournament last year, said he tries to make a point of reading the newspaper and listening to the radio to pick up the "weird, random things," as he puts it, that make up College Bowl questions.
Boglarka Petruska, a sophomore in arts and sciences, said doing homework in her classes for her classics major is a great way to practice. "Also, just being generally well-read and well-rounded translates into good participation in College Bowl tournaments," she said.
Since there are 20 members of the organization and only five can compete in the CBI tournament, individual strengths are balanced to compose the traveling team. Said Dwight Kidder, a self-described "CBI-type player," who is a graduate student in engineering, "often there is one person who will act as a 'spark plug' who's going to buzz in a lot. Once he or she gets going, the whole team will start to roll."
The team captain this year is Ken Peskin, a freshman in engineering. Positions in the organizational structure of the club change as members have more, or less, free time from academics to spend on this extracurricular activity.
Though the actual the competitions may be hectic, CAQO team practices are relaxed. "It's very informal and loose -- while still being competitive enough -- with good camaraderie among admittedly geeky people," said Petruska. Becker concurred, saying , "It's nice to do something other than schoolwork and also go anywhere from Boston to Atlanta in the course of competition."
As for those with aspirations for the big money of prime-time game shows, Kidder relates the story of Steve Rapkin, who played College Bowl at Cornell in 1991-1992. Rapkin appeared on Jeopardy last year and emerged as a winner -- taking home $100. "He was the lowest-winning winner in the show's history, for some time," Kidder said.
Students interested in joining the Cornell Academic Quiz Organization should check out the team's home page on the Web, listed under "Student Organizations" on the CUinfo home page at http://www.cornell.edu.