In 1996 "The Simpsons" became TV's longest running prime-time cartoon show. For ten points -- whose record run of six years did the Simpsons break?
Answer: "The Flinstones."
Members of Dartmouth's college bowl team traveled to New Orleans this weekend to answer questions like this one and many others in the National College Quiz Tournament Division II National Championship.
Dartmouth finished 6-7, good for 19th place overall in the competition. Even though the team finished with a losing record, it outscored opponents 2,100 to 2,065.
The team defeated Stanford University, Washington University at Saint Louis, Valencia Community College, Carleton College, Broward CC and Macalester University, but lost to Faulkner State Community College, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, McGill University, Northwest-Shoals Community College, University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Case Western Reserve University and eventual winner University of Michigan.
Daniel Belkin '08, Benjamin Taylor '07, Benjamin O'Donnell '08 and Allan Jackson '07 represented the College at the competition, which took place at Tulane University.
Taylor, who is opinion editor of The Dartmouth, led the team with 33.08 points per game. He scored a team-high 80 points in the face-off against Michigan.
Division II is reserved for undergraduates who have never been to the national championship and community colleges.
Teams qualified by placing highly in regional tournaments, which for the Northeast region took place at Brandeis University in Boston. The top 32 teams in the country attend the national tournament each year.
Other schools within this highly competitive region to send teams included Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Williams and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The Dartmouth College Bowl team typically practices on Monday and Thursday nights.
"Practices are informal and everyone is welcome," College Bowl President Jackson said. The practices typically consist of informal competitions to prepare participants for actual quiz tournaments.
The team practiced more than usual this week in order to prepare for the more rigorous questions asked at the national level.
The team has a mixed composition, Jackson said, but is currently looking for more specialists in biology and chemistry as the team has a "science deficit," he added.
At NAQT competitions, teams are composed of four people. Each person has a chance to buzz in for the opportunity of answering a question.
Questions ranged from those about organic chemistry to literature to "trash questions" about pop culture.
