History of Quiz Bowl in West Virginia

by Stephanie Frank

In the early 1960's and 70's, there were no quiz tournaments in West Virginia. Instead, there were some limited opportunities for participation on television shows such as WOWK’s "HiQ" and WTAP’s "Television Honor Society." These stations ran single elimination tournaments for teams of four seniors. The winners of these contests were eligible to compete in a national tournament and also were the recipients of a scholarship for their schools. While other states were developing high-powered academic teams, West Virginia was not. In the mid-1980's a "pseudo" state championship tournament began to be held at WV State College at Institute. The first twenty-eight schools to enter could participate. The winner would represent WV at a national tournament at Disney-World in Orlando. A sizable grant was given by the State Department of Education to help pay for the some of the expenses for the West Virginia winner. The tournament was poorly run, often starting at 9:00 a.m. and lasting to 11:00 p.m. for the final championship round; each year the expenses to enter were higher and higher virtually eliminating the schools from rural counties. When the entry fee reached $175, the schools who usually participated discovered that the people at the college running the tournament were making a sizable profit which they were using to pay themselves for running the tournament. Since their only expenses consisted of purchasing questions, four trophies and some office supplies, they were pocketing about $4000 for themselves.

Meanwhile, in the late 1980's, schools were beginning to have their own tournaments. St. Marys High School was the first, followed the next year by Parkersburg Catholic and Parkersburg South. Having a tournament and running it right is a mammoth undertaking, and right now we have about ten schools all over the state who run their own tournaments. Teams consist of five players and an alternate and schools can enter several teams. It is not unusual to have 60 teams compete in a school tournament. The format has become a round robin with each team guaranteed at least four plays in the morning, followed in the afternoon by a double elimination tournament of the top 16 teams from the morning rounds. We found that we could run a tournament with a $25 entry fee per team, purchase questions, provide doughnuts and milk in the morning, and have enough money to pay our expenses and have a little left over for entry fees so that we could go to tournaments. Junior High Schools also began to form teams, and there were tournaments for them also. Wood County also has a junior high league that plays for six weeks in the spring culminating in a championship tournament.

In 1993, fed up by the most recent debacle at WV State and its high entry fee, many of the coaches from around the state met and formed the West Virginia Academic Coaches Association and moved the tournament to West Virginia Wesleyan College who graciously opened their campus to us. Every school in the state was invited to participate, and the tournament was divided by classes based on their size in the same way as the sports teams are organized. This encouraged many smaller schools to form teams because they would not be competing against the AAA powers. The top four winners in each division would receive a trophy and individual medals for each team member. The first place winners in each division would then have play off to determine who would represent WV at Disney World. The other two division winners would also be eligible to compete at one of the other national tournaments. (There are several.) It was our hope that we would be able help each division winner with some of its expenses at the national tournaments. Meanwhile, the grant from the state department lost its funding. We were able to pay for our reader’s rooms, food, and mileage, a continental breakfast for all participants, and the trophies with an entry fee of $50 the first year and some donations that we had collected. We also tried to buy at least one buzzer system a year that everyone could borrow for their tournaments. (Many tournaments now run 12 rooms and readers, and that means twelve lock-out buzzer systems.) For the next seven years we had corporate sponsorship by State Farm who decreased their involvement each year–starting with $3000 the first year, to finally $500 and then nothing.  The next two years we operated with a deficit, being bailed out by some LKC Academic money, and contributions from some of the quiz teams themselves.

In 2005 and 2006, we moved the tournament to WVU-P in Parkersburg because all of the readers except Ernie Anderson Gorgia ,(the former moderator of HiQ in Huntington and also of several of the national tournaments) lived in the Parkersburg and Ripley areas, and we would save on rooms and mileage for the readers. We had to purchase expensive "Event Insurance" in order to use the facilities, but our other expenses were cut. We were not able to give any money to our winners to help with their entry fees at the national tournaments, nor were we able put much money aside to purchase needed supplies and buzzer systems. In 2007 we moved the tournament again–this time to Ohio Valley University also in Parkersburg. The facilities were wonderful and best of all there was no event insurance. Hopefully, we can utilize those facilities for our future years.

Stephanie Frank of Parkersburg Catholic has written a handbook called Help I’m Having a Tournament to encourage more schools to have a tournament. WVACA provides a copy of this book for free to any school who needs it, and WVACA also sends new schools practice questions and readers for their tournaments.