College Bowl

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Barnard College vs. University of Notre Dame, March 15, 1959

The College Bowl or College Quiz Bowl was a series of nationally broadcast radio and television game shows featuring competing teams of students (dubbed "varsity scholars" on the programs) from various colleges and universities vying to answer academic trivia and general knowledge questions. Teams from Columbia and Barnard both featured on the programs, including the very first College Bowl radio program.

The concept of a general knowledge game show had been developed by Don Reid as a USO activity during World War II. Reid went on to collaborate with John Moses to develop the game into a radio show.

Radio Program (1953-1955)

College Bowl was launched as program on the NBC Radio Network in 1953, and would last for just over 2 seasons. Teams of 4 students gathered at local NBC Radio affiliate stations, while host and "Master of the Quiz" Allen Ludden read questions from NBC's Radio City Studios at Rockefeller Center. Ludden would read "toss-up" questions from his studio, and the first team to signal and correctly answer received 10 points and a follow-up bonus question. Winning schools returned the following episode as 'reigning champions' until defeated. Winning teams did not "retire" after a certain number of episodes, resulting in some epic runs by individual schools.

Over the course of the first season, the program began developing characteristics that are easily recognizable in quiz bowl tournaments and quiz shows today. In the early broadcasts of the program, students would 'ring in' by raising their hands and a studio referees seated with each team would call out the school name. Later on actual buzzers were added, though only as a sound effect - students still had to raise their hands to signal, and the studio referee would then sound a buzzer. As the show progressed a "neg five" penalty was added for incorrectly answering a toss-up after buzzing in, and teams began participating from on-campus locations.

In its second season, the show picked up Good Housekeeping magazine as a sponsor. As part of the deal, the magazine would run a full page ad featuring a question from the show in its issues. However, GH pulled its sponsorship after two episodes of the third season aired, and the show ended later that year in December 1955.

Each participant in the show's two plus season run received a Longines Wittnaur watch.

Columbia appearances

Columbia holds the distinction of having participated in the very first College Bowl broadcast on October 10, 1953, a game pitting four Columbia College students against four students from Northwestern University. The Columbia students, Joe Ishy of Plymouth, MA, Bill Scales of Shreveport, LA, Bill May of Milwaukee, WI, and Howard Thalberg of New York, NY, were located at the WNBC studios, while their opponents were at WMAQ in Chicago, IL.

Although Howard Thalberg gave the first correct answer to a toss-up in College Bowl history (correctly identifying John Hay as the Secretary of State responsible for the "Open Door" policy with China), Columbia went on to lose to Northwestern, 135-60.

Columbia would make a second appearance on the program during its second season on episode #47, broadcast on March 12, 1955. Tom Evans ’55 of Cincinnati, Milbourne Smith ’56 of Fort Plans, NY, Sheldon Wolf ’55 of Brooklyn, and Jerry Popper ’55 of NYC never had a chance, trailing opponents Colgate 170-30 at halftime, before succumbing to a final score of 310-100.

Barnard appearances

Barnard College made its first appearance on the show in episode #23 on March 14, 1954. Rail Isaacs of New York City, Barbara Powder of Summerville, NJ, Marguerita Valguadenira of Philadelphia, PA via Palermo, Sicily, and Gerry Kirschenbaum of Brooklyn took on the reigning champs Washington and Lee University. Trailing by only 20 points at halftime, the team fell short in the end, losing 190-165.

Barnard made a return appearance only 5 shows later at the beginning of the second season of the show, taking on Syracuse University (who had unseated Washington and Lee) on October 30, 1954. Annette Wilhoit of Des Moines, IA, Toby Brown of Brooklyn, Donna Cricks of Cincinnati, and Judy Lewitis of the Bronx took a 125-110 lead into halftime. But the team eventually fell to Syracuse by a final score of 205-175.

Media

Radio broadcast recordings

Columbia Spectator and Barnard Bulletin Articles

G.E. College Bowl Television Program (1959-1970)

After a four year hiatus, the College Bowl was revived as a television program on CBS as the "GE College Bowl", sponsored by General Electric. The re-launch of the show came after the game show genre had been rocked by a series of game-rigging scandals, including most famously one involving Columbia professor Charles van Doren, son of the legendary Professor Mark van Doren (as dramatized in the film Quiz Show). Perhaps the goal was to give the format a more wholesome look.

The new show once again featured teams of four college students, but now traveled from school to school, with the 'reigning champions' hosting challengers in a campus showdown. Teams who won five matches in a row were crowned 'champions', awarded a 'College Bowl' trophy, and retired from the show. Teams also earned scholarship money from show sponsors for their schools for each match won.

For the first three seasons, the show aired on CBS and featured Allen Ludden as host once more. After three seasons the show moved to NBC, and Robert Earle succeeded Ludden, who had moved on to host the game show Password.

Columbia/Barnard appearances on CBS

In a reprise of the very first College Bowl radio broadcast, Columbia faced off against Northwestern in the second ever episode of the new television program which aired on January 11, 1959. Columbia College students Ira Jolles ’59, Alexander Liebowitz ’61, Bruce Shoulson ’61, and David Looman ’62 went on to repeat history, losing to Northwestern again, though by a more respectable margin of 165-130.

Barnard College was invited on to the show for episode #9, to face off against Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. The Notre Dame team was coming off of a victory against Georgetown University, during which future fantasy and gothic mystery novelist John Bellairs earned notoriety for launching into a Middle English recitation of Chaucer in response to a question about the Canterbury Tales. The team of Heritage (Cherry) White ’59, Susan Rennie ’61, Phyllis Hurwitz ’61, and Ellen Willis ’62 were coached by Professor of English Richard Norman, and eager to out-do their counter-parts across the street at Columbia. Rennie, a native of South Africa who had participated in game shows in her native country was quoted in an interview saying "It's our absolute ambition to win this match because Columbia lost their first time out."

Barnard defeated Notre Dame 230-110 on an episode that aired on March 15, 1959. On their return to campus, the team was greeted by a cheering crowd of their classmates, and members of the Marching Band. The two weeks later the team hosted and defeated USC at Minor Latham Playhouse in episode #10 which aired on March 29, 1959, subduing their west coast guests 195-65 (having blitzed their opponents to a 140-0 lead), before finally falling to University of Minnesota 155-90 in episode #11.

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Media

  • Phyllis Hurwitz and Cherry White briefly appear in a scene of "Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story" (at the 34:45 mark) when the title character and his brother are watching College Bowl on TV, although the voiceover is borrowed from a different episode of the show as Allen Ludden refers to "Brandeis."
  • The introduction of the Barnard-USC match is available on Youtube, including footage of Phyllis Hurwitz answering a question against Notre Dame, footage of both campuses, player introductions, and Allen Ludden explaining the rules.
  • The Barnard Archives has magnetic tape recordings of the Barnard-Notre Dame and Barnard-USC matches, which were given over by the college's English Department in 2004, suggesting that they were perhaps stored among Richard Norman's records.
  • A full video recording of Barnard's demolition of USC is known to exist.
  • The Columbia Archives has negatives of photographs taken on the Barnard team's return from Notre Dame listed in its holdings, although as of Spring 2005 they had been misplaced.

  • Ellen J. Willis '62, Phyllis J. Hurwitz '61, Heritage (Cherry) M. White '59, and Susan Rennie '61 at Notre Dame University, March 15, 1959 (Credit: Barnard College Archives)

  • Ruth L. Schwartz '61 (alternate), Heritage (Cherry) M. White '59, Susan Rennie '61, Phyllis J. Hurwitz '61, and Ellen J. Willis '62 welcomed back outside Brooks Hall, March 16, 1959 (Credit: Barnard College Archives)

  • Ellen J. Willis '62, Ruth L. Schwartz '61 (alternate), Phyllis J. Hurwitz '61, Susan Rennie '61, a tuba player from the Columbia Marching Band, and Heritage (Cherry) M. White '59 outside Brooks Hall, March 16, 1959 (Credit: Barnard College Archives)

  • Ruth L. Schwartz '61 (alternate), Susan Rennie '61, Heritage (Cherry) M. White '59, and Phyllis J. Hurwitz '61, March 16, 1959 (Credit: Barnard College Archives)

  • Phyllis J. Hurwitz '61, Ellen J. Willis '62, Susan Rennie '61, Heritage (Cherry) M. White '59, and Prof. Richard Norman (coach) in a practice session for the USC match, dated March 16, 1959, possibly inside Milbank Hall (Credit: Barnard College Archives)

Columbia/Barnard appearances on NBC

In 1962, the GE College Bowl shifted to NBC and took on a new host, Robert Earle. Columbia made its second appearance on the television show during the 1966-1967 season.

Captained by Elia Racah ’67, the 1966 Columbia squad included Derek Randal ’67, Jeffrey Rosen ’68, and Steven Ross ’68. The team was coached by Assistant Dean Mark Flanigan, who quipped to the Columbia Spectator "I am the only coach on campus with an undefeated, untied, and unscored on team." Assistant coach Katharine Koch called "really offensive", hopefully referring to their scoring prowess. The 66-67 team went on to demolish Providence College (300-205), Indiana University- Bloomington (250-145), Michigan State University (320-150), College of William and Mary (330-60), and Smith College (345-120) between November 6 and December 18, 1966. When the smoke settled the 5 time champions retired from the show with $10,500 in scholarships for the school, a silver trophy for the team, and a champagne party given in their honor by Columbia College Dean David Truman. Reflecting on those games years later, show creator Don Reid recalled that "the Columbia series was one of the biggest slaughters in the College Bowl."

Not to be outdone, Barnard College appeared on the show during the following season, and matched their peer's performance. Debbie Weissman '70 and teammates Maggie Rosenblum '68, Rachel Val Cohen '70, and Connie Casey '69, coached once more by Professor Richard Norman, first stopped Bryn Mawr from completing a 5 game winning streak 205-175, and then went on to complete its own, defeating in turn Niagara University (240-165), Ohio State (295-145), Jackson College/Tufts University (225-160), and the University of Washington (175-160). They too took home the 'College Bowl', $10,500 in scholarship grants for Barnard, and were received by college President Martha Peterson.

Media

  • Barnard College 67-68 Championship team: Rachel V. Cohen '70, Deborah R. Weissman '70, Constance Casey '69, and Margaret Rosenblum '68. (Credit: Barnard College Archives)

  • President Martha Peterson receiving the College Bowl cup from General Electric Vice President John H. Spencer, while Prof. Richard Norman (coach) and members of Barnard College Quiz Bowl championship team look on in the Deanery, January 8, 1968. Left to right: Deborah R. Weissman '70, Constance Casey '69, Mr. Spencer, Prof. Norman, Goldie A. Shabad '68 (alternate), President Peterson, Rachel V. Cohen '70, and Margaret Rosenblum '68. (Credit: Barnard College Archives)

Other Programs

College Bowl produced a few more radio and television programs during the 1970s, before ultimately settling into organizing un-broadcast collegiate tournaments around the country in the 1980s, in addition to licensing a number offshoots of the format. It appears that Columbia may have made an appearance during a show broadcast on CBS Radio sometime between 1979 and 1980.

Ultimately students at schools who grew tired of College Bowl's centralized hegemony and tv-like format formed a number of competing question writing/tournament organizing organizations, such as ACF and NAQT. The Quiz Bowl club at Columbia travels to and participates in a number of student organized tournaments around the northeast and mid-atlantic.

External links

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