Campus Programming and Relations will be hosting the College Bowl Tournament in the Pioneer Student Center, starting at 7 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 30.

“The College Bowl is a question and answer game in which two teams of up to four players at a time complete to quickly recall general knowledge facts,” Tom Michael, CB program manager, said. “Questions can be on any topic, from academic subjects to the latest pop culture icons.”

Teams play as individuals on “toss-up” questions which, if answered successfully, reward the team with a bonus question they work on together for more points, Michael said. Each match lasts 14 to 16 minutes and is divided into seven or eight minute halves.

The Bowl is similar to High School Trivia and Academic Games. The tournament is held throughout other campuses, leading to regions. The best team from UW-Platteville’s College Bowl will attend regions, next semester.

Platteville has competed in the College Bowl since the 2003-04 academic year. The team competes in Region 8 of the Association of the College Unions International, which includes Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and the Chicago area, Michael said.

“The Bowl allows students to show the variety of knowledge they have accumulated through different subjects,” Hal DeLaRosby, a former moderator, said.

“It is much better to have a team composed of different majors as well as different life experiences so there is a balance to a team taking time answering questions,” DeLaRosby said. “A team of four different majors, as a general rule, will out perform a team composed of all students of the same major.”

“This is an event for all, especially those who aren’t interested in physical or crafty events,” Hanah Diebold, event manager said.

The College Bowl Company is based in Woodland Hills, California. The company produces the College Bowl competition in the United States and other competitions worldwide.

The College Bowl began in 1953 as a radio quiz show on NBC that ran until 1955. Then in Jan. 1959 it went to CBS television as “General Electric College Bowl,” and after moving back to NBC
in the fall of 1962, stayed on the air until 1970, Michael said. It won an Emmy Award while on television, and became the first televised game show to win a Peabody Award for Broadcasting Excellence.

Deadline for signing up is Nov. 29. Teams can sign up in the Pioneer Involvement Center.