Utterly Trivial (and Totally Worth It)

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jun 2018 19:15:00 +0000

Utterly Trivial (and Totally Worth It) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 06/01/2018 - 13:15

Eric Gershon

The band was back together. Three-quarters of it, anyway.

Children of a Lesser Godzilla — an iteration of the 1991 CU Trivia Bowl’s winning team, The Godzillas Must Be Crazy — reunited Dick Shahan (Engl’71; PhD’85), Sandy McVie and Dave Wallack, plus fresh recruit Harry Hawthorne (DistSt’74). The occasion, in April, was a three-day revival, 50 years after its debut, of the CU Trivia Bowl, the live, game show-like trivia tournament that helped define cultural life at ��񱦵� starting in the late 1960s.

“On Friday morning of each trivia bowl week, there would be people standing in line outside the UMC to get seats,” said Shahan, a retired Boulder librarian who played in about 15 bowls starting in 1975.

In its heyday, the bowl attracted hundreds of players from around campus and far afield. Modeled on the relatively earnest GE College Bowl, popular nationwide in the 1960s, CU’s version emphasized pop culture: Sports, music, show business and the like.

Over five days each spring, 64 teams faced off in a bracket-style contest under bright lights in the Glenn Miller Ballroom — for bragging rights, a trophy with Mickey Mouse ears and the sheer fun of it.

The bowl’s last regular year was 1993, amid fading interest.

But every so often, the die-hards reconvene. Paul Bailey (EnvDes’83; MA’94) and Dan Rector (Edu’73) led the latest effort.

If turnout was modest and the setting less Hollywoodesque — 16 teams of four tested their mettle over three days at the Williams Village Center — it was a delight to savor for Shahan.

His powers of instant association were on display when the moderator listed about a dozen female song characters and asked which recording artist’s ouvre contained them all.

“Bruce Springsteen!” he called out — correctly — after buzzing in.

Godzilla made it to the quarterfinals. In the end, Some Guys Walk Into a Bar, a team of conspicuously young participants, won.

Shahan was okay with that. The latest bowl had done its job.

“It brought it all back again,” he said.

For Dick Shahan’s commentary and sample questions, visit here.

Photo by Jerry Stowall, from Coloradan Collection, CU Heritage Center

Die-hard veterans of CU’s Trivia Bowl test their mettle again.

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Cross Country and Track and Field Reunion

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 16:43:12 +0000

Cross Country and Track and Field Reunion Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 03/01/2011 - 09:43

Scott Larson

When CU cross country coach Mark Wetmore opened the van door with newly crowned champion Kara Grgas-Wheeler Goucher (Psych’01) to tell his team they had just won the 2000 NCAA Women’s Cross Country Championships, they told him, in no uncertain terms, “Shut the door!” They were in Ames, Iowa, and it was minus 19 degrees Fahrenheit.

This was just one of the many stories recounted at the Cross Country and Track & Field Reunion Oct. 22-24 in Boulder to honor both the 2000 women’s cross country team and the 1985 men’s cross country team that finished third nationally.

Sprinter Wayne Hardy (CivEngr’54) recalls taking his first ever airplane ride to a meet in Kansas. And Cliff Branch (A&S’72) — after winning three Super Bowl rings with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders — tells of the bitter disappointment he felt losing the Big 8 Indoor Track & Field Championship team title by only a few points.

As the night progressed, some stories may have been embellished, but there could be no denying the genuine friendships that were forged as CU student-athletes.

“As a student-athlete the experiences you have on a team are irreplaceable,” says Sara Gorton Slattery (Bus, Econ’03, MEdu’05), who placed eighth in 2000 and is an Alumni C Club assistant. “You work together for the same goal each season and see your teammates go through the same sacrifices and struggles you do each day. Often, you’re away from home and your teammates become your family. You can’t re-create those friendships with anyone.”

Clint Wells (Psych’98) had a successful postcollegiate distance running career, but his time at CU was invaluable.

“Look at this,” he says, his arm sweeping over the crowd of former athletes. “This is what it’s all about; it was always about being part of a team.”

Dan Reese (Psych’85), pictured above and an inductee into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame and member of the 1985 men’s cross country team, says his team came together when Mick Bannister’s (Geog, Math’85) father died before regionals. Mick flew back to England for the funeral and missed the meet. He told the team that if they qualified for nationals he would “run out of his mind.” He did.

Jerry Quiller, coach of the 1985 team, sums up the weekend best when he says, “As you get older your priorities transcend past winning and losing to health, family and friends.”

Photo by CU Athletics

As the night progressed, some stories may have been embellished, but there could be no denying the genuine friendships that were forged as CU student-athletes.

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