APPLETON, WIS. — Lawrence University freshman Greg Peterson knows his history. And his literature, science and fine arts.
Peterson has put all that knowledge to good use as the driving force behind a revival of Lawrence’s once-dominant college quizbowl team.
Looking to return Lawrence to national prominence in the world of questions-and-answers competition, Peterson is off to a great start. After organizing a team last fall, he already has Lawrence heading to the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ (NAQT) Intercollegiate Championship, the nation’s largest, most prestigious quizbowl event for college students.
Lawrence will be among 32 teams from around the country competing April 11-12 at the national tournament hosted by Washington University in St. Louis. Lawrence’s four-person team will match wits against teams from such Ivy League powerhouses as Harvard, Cornell, Princeton and Dartmouth universities, as well as brainiacs from Swarthmore and MIT.
As a fledgling program, Peterson and his teammates will participate in NAQT’s Division II tournament, which is reserved for undergraduate students on teams in either their first or second year of existence and who have not previously qualified for the national tournament.
“We won’t be considered ‘national champions’ if we win because we’re competing in Division II,” said Peterson of Park Ridge, Ill. “But we could say we’re the best ‘new’ quizbowl team in the country.”
The current NAQT competition is a stepchild of the once-popular television program known as the “GE College Bowl,” which was sponsored by General Electric and ran on national television from 1959-70. Originally hosted by Allen Ludden, the show was televised weekly on Saturdays and Sundays, pitting college teams from around the country. During the 1964-65 season, Lawrence was a five-time winner on the program — the maximum number of appearances allowed — returning to campus from New York City to a hero’s welcome after earning a silver trophy, $10,500 in scholarship money and national recognition.
“I knew that Lawrence had done well on the old GE College Bowl program, but I couldn’t figure out why no one had competed since then,” said Peterson. “There was a buzzer system in place to practice and there was talent available on campus, but for some reason they just weren’t being put together. Liberal arts colleges like Lawrence are perfect for quizbowl. The game covers so many different categories that you need well-rounded players who can answer questions on everything from biochemistry to Russian literature to prime-time TV.”
Peterson was an obvious choice to restart Lawrence’s efforts on the college quizbowl circuit. He participated in Illinois’ “Scholastic Bowl” for two years in high school and last summer reached the finals of the teen tournament on the popular television show “Jeopardy!.” Despite racking up an impressive two-day total of $38,600, he missed winning the teen tournament title by an agonizing $1.
Shortly after arriving on campus last September, he went searching for fellow students who shared his passion for the game. In October, Peterson represented Lawrence as a team of one at a tournament in Chicago, placing sixth all by himself out of 24 teams.
With the subsequent additions of fellow freshmen Richard Wanerman, Emily Koenig and Catherine Albright, Lawrence competed in four more tournaments between November and early March, finishing first in three of them. A five-way tie for first among 14 teams at a sectional tournament in early February at the University of Chicago earned Lawrence a ticket to the nationals in St. Louis.
Due to a conflict, Albright won’t be able to participate at the national tournament. Sophomore Michael Schreiber will join Peterson, Wanerman and Koenig in representing Lawrence.
At nationals, the 32-team field will be divided into four pools of eight teams. The top two finishing teams in each pool will advance to the championship bracket.
“Some of the really strong schools from our region you would expect to be there, like Northwestern and the University of Chicago, won’t be there because Lawrence took their spot,” Peterson said with just a hint of gloating.
Quizbowl tournaments typically feature head-to-head competitions between two teams of four members each. “A 10-point “toss-up” question opens play, with the first team to answer correctly given the opportunity to answer a 30-point, multiple-part bonus question. A total of 20 toss-up questions are asked per game.
“My goal for the national tournament is to get into the championship bracket,” said Peterson. “Knowing that we’ll be competing against teams from Stanford, Cornell and Dartmouth, it will be tough, but I think we can do it.”
