The Journal

Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: LifeStyle

Media Credit: COLLEEN MCLAUGHLIN Debbie Carpenter, Dean of the School of Communications celebrates her birthday with her daughter, Angie Carpenter at the Debate and Forensics Trivia Night on Saturday, March 4, 2006.

Roughly 60 people donned their thinking caps and tested their mental prowess March 4 in a team trivia competition sponsored by Webster University's Forensics and Debate Team.

Scott Jensen, director of Webster's debate and forensics team, said there were several reasons the team decided to host its first trivia night.

"One is help raise a little bit of money to help cushion our budget some," Jensen said. "(Also) we've done some (trivia contests) as a team and we found out how much fun they are, so we thought it would be a neat team bonding event before our national season opens."

The trivia contest, which featured 10 rounds of 10 questions each, tested the attendees' knowledge of a wide gamut of topics. Among the categories featured were television, literature, music, cereals, Missouri facts, American history, famous speeches and speakers, the Olympics and the Oscars.

After each round of questions, which were devised by members of the debate team and read by Jensen, each table's score was tabulated.

In addition to the 10 rounds of team trivia, three individual between-round games, Dead or Alive, Sports Nicknames and North or South, also took place throughout the evening. For an extra $1 per game, participants were asked to identify whether the stated individual was still living or deceased, which sport was associated with a given sports nickname and whether the country named was located north or south of the equator. The last person standing in each round received a gift certificate or other prizes.

Several raffle drawings took place between the 10 trivia rounds with individuals winning gift certificates to Webster Wok, Papa John's and other restaurants, one-day passes to Six Flags and movie passes to the Tivoli Theater.

Attendees also bid on two "baseball baskets," which each included a pair of tickets to upcoming Cardinals' games.

Several attendees said they enjoyed the event that lasted approximately four hours.

"This was a fun one, I actually knew stuff tonight," said Amie Medley, a 2004 Webster alumna.

Christine Riat, a resident of Florissant, said this was her first trivia contest.

"I've never been to a trivia night before, I've always wanted to go to one," said Riat. "It was pretty fun, but it was much harder than I thought."

Overall, Jensen said he was pleased with the level of interest the event received.

"I'm pretty excited about the turnout for this being the first
year," Jensen said. "There's a real mix of community and Webster people."

Jensen said he hopes for increased participation in future trivia nights.

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