When I introduced the computer history quotes that I began publishing recently, I mentioned that I participated in the Texaco Star Academic Challenge. I think it was my Sophomore or Junior year at Scarborough Senior High School in northwest Houston. I can’t remember her name, but one of the History/Social Studies teachers was the faculty adviser and we used to practice answering quiz bowl questions in her class after school. I don’t remember all of my teammates, but I do remember Odom Em and Kevin (forgot his last name) being on the team. Kevin and Odom were upper classmen and two of the brightest in the school.

This Wikipedia article just has a short blurb about the competition. Too bad I couldn’t find more after some googling. I remember we competed in the main atrium of Greenspoint Mall in north Houston. There were 5 or 6 students per team, and we each had our buzzers, pencils, and notepads. In one competition, I came out on fire, answering something like the first 4 out of 5 questions correctly. Part of the trick in doing well in quiz bowls is to buzz in right away- even if you don’t really know the answer and can only muster a guess. This is mostly important on the toss up questions because you prevent the other team from getting a chance to answer that question and you give your team a chance to go into the bonus questions.

Anyway, on two of the four first questions I buzzed in just so I could guess- and I luckily got them both right. One of the questions was about the big bang and what type of force was the first to be emitted, according to modern theories. I didn’t really know, so I guessed from one of the multiple choices that the moderator gave us, and I was right. I think the answer was something like “strong magnet force.” Or was it the “weak magnetic force?” Can’t remember. I also remember an audio question. They played a song that I had never heard before and asked what was this band’s hometown. I had never heard the song, but it was definitely some 70s or 80s funk/soul music. Havign grown up on a steady diet of funk music from my parents, and knowing that Detroit was the nexus of soul music in that era, I buzzed in before the clip was even finished playing and guessed “Detroit.” I was right! Who knew?!

I remember the moderator saying something like, “Wow, Nigel from Scarborough is coming out firing on all cylinders. He has answered four out of four correctly.” I was so proud! (Don’t laugh… remember, I’m nostalgic!) Unfortunately, I don’t remember any of my answers for the rest of the day. I know we lost, so we couldn’t have done too well. But I do remember Odom answering a math question like a champ. And I remember this question word for word. “What distance does a hand on a clock travel during fifteen minutes. Express your answer in radians.” I was stumped because I had not yet taken Algebra 2, or Pre Calculus, or whatever class you learn about radians, arcs, and measuring circular distances and angles. But Odom scribbled something and answered right away, “Pi over 2.” He was right, and it took him like 2 seconds to buzz in. I was so impressed! (More about Radians from Wikipedia.)

After we lost that round, we had lunch in the mall and went home. We were mad that we lost, but I remember the team was happy that we got to compete. Scarborough was such a small high school compared to other high schools in Houston, that we didn’t get to compete and participated in a lot of the events that the others did.

Maybe one day I’ll not care so much about what some people call “useless trivia,” but I doubt it!