Trivia Nights in the News

Here are a few of the articles from local news sources about trivia nights over the past few years:

A toast to trivia / Pop-Tarts appeal to curious kids

State Journal-Register, The (Springfield, IL) - Wednesday, February 7, 2007

When Russ Friedewald was 11 or 12 years old, he started sitting in on the rounds of Trivial Pursuit his parents played with their friends. And he would beat them.

That started his interest in trivia. Today, the Springfield computer consultant regularly watches TV’s “Jeopardy,” reads “Jeopardy” grand-champ Ken Jennings’ online blog, attends as many local trivia-night fundraisers as he can and maintains a Web site (www. springfieldtrivia.com ) that lists upcoming trivia nights in the Sangamon County area.

“In 2001 or 2002, there was a site in St. Louis that posted the trivia nights there. There wasn’t anything like that here, so I started one,” he said.

Sometimes he is recruited to prepare the slate of 100 questions needed for a trivia night. A typical competition has 10 categories, with 10 questions per category. Tables of up to 10 players compete against other tables. Cash prizes as well as bragging rights are at stake.

“I’m not a big fan of multiple choice or true and false,” he said when asked about what goes into an ideal trivia question. “At a good trivia night, you can tell the question writer put a lot of thought into it. Even if you don’t know the answer, you are entertained by the question.”

Friedewald, 34, said there are three types of people who show up at the events. Some are there to support the fundraising cause. Others go to have a good time with their friends. And still others are part of a regular trivia circuit; they work at honing their general-knowledge skills and play to win.

Before trivia became popular in the U.S., it was a big deal in the United Kingdom, Friedewald said.

“They’ve had pub quizzes forever,” he said. In 1982, the Trivial Pursuit board game was introduced in the U.S. Not long after, trivia nights began popping up in big cities. Friedewald said the competitions started in Springfield in the mid-1990s.

Besides playing general-knowledge board games and watching TV game shows, kids often get interested in trivia through school quiz bowls or scholastic bowls. Sometimes even food can pique their interest.

A few years ago, Pringles started printed trivia questions on its potato chips.

Now the Kellogg Co. is teaming up with Trivial Pursuit to print edible trivia questions and answers on strawberry Pop-Tarts.

Thanks to ink-jet technology, the 200 child-level questions on the icing of the toaster pastries center on subjects like music, movies, nature, history and pop culture.

The brainteaser-laden Pop-Tarts started rolling into supermarkets a few weeks ago and will be sold through 2007.

Sample questions:

Q. Which of the X-Men can heal an injury?

A. Wolverine

Q. What does the bird say in the poem “The Raven”?

A. Nevermore

Q. Where did Robin Hood live?

A. Sherwood Forest

When Pop-Tarts hit the market in 1964, there were just a few fruity varieties, such as strawberry and blueberry. Now there are 36 flavors, including hot fudge sundae, French toast and Barbie Sparkleberry.

I don’t know what a Sparkleberry is. But I bet Ken Jennings does.

Attendance at a local trivia night held Sunday was down this year because some regulars pulled out.

The reason?

Their wives didn’t want them going out on Valentine’s Day.

Attendance at the sixth annual Sports Radio 1450 All-Sports Trivia Night , held at the Knights of Columbus hall, 2200 South Meadowbrook Road, was slightly down this year, according to Kevin O’Dea, vice president and general manager of Neuhoff Media Springfield, the company that owns Sports Radio 1450.

“A few regulars called and said their wives wouldn’t let them go,” he said. “So we were a few tables down this year.”

The event, which benefits the Capital Area Sports Commission, drew about 360 people.

The cost was $10 per participant and teams could include up to 10 players. Cash prizes were included, with the first place team taking home $250, second place $150 and third place $100.

Yet many of the participants – mostly men – said their wives and girlfriends didn’t mind them going out with their buddies and fielding about 100 sports questions.

“This is our fourth year doing it,” said Sean Dickerson, 32, of Springfield. “It’s just a way for us guys to get together, have a few beers and eat too much food.”

Dickerson said his wife is very understanding.

“We were able to go out to dinner (Saturday) night ,” he added.

Teammate Jeremy Bonnett, 36, of Springfield, had a humorous outlook on the night .

“This was our Valentine’s Day present,” he said, chuckling. “We both have newborns, so we can’t do much anyway.”

Tim Palmer, 44, of Springfield, said his girlfriend didn’t mind having him going out with friends on Sunday night .

“I’m a sports nut and I always wanted to do it,” he said of the trivia night .

One of his teammates, 30-year-old Brandon Fellows, said his girlfriend was glad to get him out of the house.

“I talk about this crap all the time, and now I can use it in a useful way,” he said.

Rhys Saunders can be reached at 788-1521.

It’s 6 p.m. on a Saturday, and the temperature sits just above freezing on this late autumn evening. On the north side of town, they’re kicking off the Class 5A state football semifinals. On the south side, the stage is being set for a more visceral competition. It’s trivia night – firefighter style.

In the Springfield area, trivia nights are fast becoming a popular alternative to going to the movies or bars on a Saturday night. They’re also popular fundraisers for schools and organizations that host the events. From fall through spring, a trivia night can be found almost every weekend. Tonight, the action is at the Firefighters Lake Club.

Inside the club, Allen and Sheila Reyne are getting things ready for the night’s event. Allen, 35, is a firefighter with the Springfield Fire Department. His wife Sheila, 36, is a nurse. Together, they’ve organized about a dozen trivia nights over the past four years at the club.

They’ve been preparing for months by coming up with 100 questions, divided into 10 categories, plus two bonus questions. All are incorporated into a PowerPoint presentation. Each question’s answer has been double checked against a secondary source to ensure integrity. However …

“There’s always going to be a question that I screw up,” Allen says, laughing. Unlike some trivia nights that take a firm stance against challenging answers, the Reynes will make amends if it becomes obvious that they’ve made a mistake.

If there is a mistake tonight, Sheila will be the one to hear about it. She will sit as one of the judges and scorekeepers tonight, while Allen again serves as emcee.

Allen doesn’t model himself on any famous trivia hosts, although he says he prefers Regis Philbin’s style to that of Alex Trebek. He does share Philbin’s penchant for self-deprecating humor, but his wardrobe is much less formal and monochromatic.

No one will become a millionaire tonight, either. The winning team will take home $300. A team of 10 can recoup their $10 per person entry fee, and, if they don’t end up on a first-name basis with the bartender, go home with a little extra money in their pocket. Second and third places also receive a cash prize.

Approximately 280 people are here tonight, with a cumulative IQ estimated to be in the neighborhood of 32,000. Contributing to that brainpower are Gary Fleck, Teresa McCarthy and Russ Friedewald, who, along with their respective teams, will be squaring off against 27 other teams in tonight’s battle of trivial supremacy.

Fleck, 54, is a captain with the Springfield Fire Department and a past president of the Firefighters Lake Club. He’s a regular at the trivia nights here. Fleck says his team has come close to winning in the past, but he’s noncommittal about its chances tonight.

“You never know,” he says, smiling.

McCarthy, 43, works for United Cerebral Palsy. Her team comes in as defending champ; they won one of the firefighter events last spring. There’s another title, though, that they’re more interested in retaining.

“We are definitely the funnest team,” says McCarthy, who seems determined to prove it.

If there is such a thing as a professional trivia player here tonight, it’s Friedewald. Not only does the 33-year-old Web developer operate springfieldtrivia.com , a site that promotes trivia nights in the area, he also has incorporated the pursuit of trivial knowledge into his everyday life.

“I have trivia books in the bathroom,” he says. None of the embarrassment that registers on his wife’s face is detectable in his voice as he admits this.

At a little past 7 o’clock, Allen reads the rules for the night’s contest. Most here know the drill. Teams write their answers on the answer sheet and after the last question of each category, they have two minutes to turn their sheet in to the judges. Because tonight is the largest trivia night in Firefighter Club history, Allen cautions against making any mad dashes through the crowded hall.

The formalities now concluded, it’s time to play trivia.

Round 1′s category is Love and Marriage. Interestingly, Fleck’s table is segregated, with the men seated on one half and the women on the other. Pictures of celebrities are displayed on the screen and teams are asked to name their spouses. Fleck’s team deliberates in hushed tones. They nod in agreement after each question, appearing confident in their answers.

“I think we got about seven,” Fleck says as he takes their answer sheet up to the judges. Alas, all’s not fair in love and trivia. His team only gets four correct.

It’s on to Round 2, a category in which all of the answers are people named Jack.

Over at McCarthy’s table, they’re making room for another round of beer. It’s a trivia-night tradition to bring your own food, and her team is nibbling on a smorgasbord of chips, dips and a peculiarly named meatball that tastes better than it sounds.

McCarthy confides that in the past she was guilty of saying answers too loudly, allowing other teams to overhear. She’s learned her lesson and is now her team’s designated shusher.

As play progresses, it becomes clear that her team does know Jack. McCarthy identifies Jack Black as one half of the musical/comedy act Tenacious D. Her team goes on to tally nine points, plus an extra four for getting the bonus question on the second clue.

When the name John Pemberton appeared on screen as the first bonus-question clue at the end of Round 1, Friedewald immediately pegged him as the inventor of Coke.

“They teach you that on the first day of trivia school,” he says jokingly.

Round 3′s category is Las Vegas. One of Friedewald’s team members, who hasn’t contributed much in the early going, wants it on the record that his lack of trivia knowledge doesn’t detract from his worthiness as a person. Duly noted, but that doesn’t help when it’s time to come up with Bugsy Siegel’s real first name. That’s the only question they miss this round.

Sports is coming up in Round 4. It’s always a tricky category because men feel a primal obligation to come up with the answers, even when they’re stumped. You can see the frustration in Fleck’s face as he tries to remember the most recent Notre Dame player to win the Heisman Trophy.

Later, someone suggests Steve Young as the answer to the question of who was the winningest quarterback of the 1990s. A discussion ensues as to whether Mormons play football. They do, and Young is, but the correct answer is Troy Aikman. His faith is irrelevant.

Sports turns out to be the toughest category of the evening, with teams averaging only 4.5 correct answers.

Round 5 is an homage of sorts to the emcee. In this category, You Can Call Me Al, the answers all begin with the letters “al.”

McCarthy is on a roll. She knows that when you eat outdoors, you’re eating al fresco. She knows that a large, hooked-beak seabird is, literally, an albatross. Unfortunately, she mistakenly thinks that Carl Switzer is better known as Al Jolson.

During this round, McCarthy catches someone eavesdropping from a neighboring table.

“Hello!” she says to the interloper. “Aren’t you on someone else’s team?”

She appears to be joking, but there is $300 at stake, so you never know.

Round 6 is a hodgepodge of events that occurred on this date in history. Friedewald’s team is cruising. It was the Blues Brothers who first appeared on “Saturday Night Live” in 1978. Dodgeball was the game banned in New Jersey in 2002. But Buzz Aldrin wasn’t the only astronaut to play golf on the moon and the one born on this day in 1923. They end up with nine points.

Things go to the dogs in Round 7 as teams are asked to figure out the names of famous pets. Back at Fleck’s table, they struggle a bit before remembering that the monster living under the steps on “The Munsters” was named Spot. They don’t bite when someone at the next table slyly suggests that the dog on “Frasier” was named Niles. They answer that question correctly as well.

When the answers for this category are read, a minor controversy ensues. Several tables, including Fleck’s, had put down Tramp as the dog on “My Three Sons.” The judges were looking for a mutt named Wilson. It turns out that both answers are correct, and the judges judiciously credit either answer. Fleck’s team finishes with an impressive eight out of 10.

Junk food is on the menu in Round 8 and the health-minded members of McCarthy’s team are out of their element. They can’t identify the specific brands of snack cakes and microwave popcorn that appear on the screen.

Another question asks for the correct spelling of Xochimilco. McCarthy is trying to conjure up a mental picture of the local restaurant’s sign. She scribbles variations of the spelling on a scrap of paper until she comes up with one that she likes. McCarthy spells it correctly, save for a superfluous X that she added to the beginning of the name. It costs her team the point, but they’re having too much fun to care.

“We’re getting spanked,” she says after tallying only five points for the round.

The event enters its final two rounds. Round 9 is on members of law enforcement. Friedewald’s teammates include a police officer and an FBI agent, but this round calls for a movie buff. Teams are given the character names of onscreen cops and they have to come up with the name of the movie in which they appeared.

Friedewald’s team is confident that they have nine correct answers, but can’t think of the movie featuring the characters Alex Cross and Kate McTiernan. Just as time is set to expire, Friedewald pulls out the answer from the recesses of his memory. They score a perfect 10.

Going into Round 10, Fleck and McCarthy’s teams have been mathematically eliminated. Only Friedewald’s team still has a shot, and it’s in a category in which they traditionally are strong. Clips of 10 songs will be played and teams are asked to identify each artist.

Rather than make the last round the most challenging, Allen reserves it for what typically is the most fun. There’s sound reasoning behind this strategy; he wants people to return for the next event.

“It’s like with golf; if you play well on the last hole, you’ll forget about how bad you played the rest of the round and you’ll want to do it again,” he says.

It appears to be working as a communal karaoke contest has broken out in the middle of a trivia night.

Round 10 also features Allen’s signature question. At the first event he hosted, an inebriated player, who had spent the evening reveling in his own ignorance by yelling out incorrect answers, actually knew who Roxie Roker’s famous son is. Ever since, Lenny Kravitz has appeared as an answer at every one of the Reynes’ trivia nights.

Friedewald’s team gets the Kravitz question correct, but whiff on Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban. They end up in fourth place, one spot out of the money.

Earlier, Allen had confided how he can spot a winning team: “If they brought snacks and there’s no beer on the table, they’re probably here to win some money.”

True to type, team 12 has a table full of soda and 103 points on the board. Their team also is a case study on how diversity can lead to success on trivia night.

“When we gray-hairs get together, we don’t know many of the TV and music questions,” Barb Gossrow says. So in addition to members of her bridge club, she brought along some younger players to fill in their knowledge gaps. It pays off when Allen hands over their first-place prize money.

It isn’t about the money, though. Around 250 people are heading home tonight slightly poorer, but they received a good three hours of entertainment in return.

“We’re too old to go to the bars, so it’s just something fun and different. It’s a chance to get out without the kids, hang out with friends and lose. We’re losers,” McCarthy says proudly.

Of course, there are no losers on trivia night, just people who don’t know who Carl Switzer was.

Do you know?

The recent surge in popularity of all things poker has led to an onslaught of guides with tips on how to beat the odds. Although there are no casinos here, Springfield is a hot bed of another kind of high-stakes entertainment - trivia nights . And this is your guide on how to come home a winner.

The Web has rendered most tests of trivial knowledge uncompetitive. Newspapers and magazines have to query for increasingly obscure information to challenge the Google generation. Even the fifth caller to a radio station has enough time to search online for an answer before scoring those boat show passes. Only at trivia nights can you truly test your mental mettle.

Trivia nights are sponsored by organizations throughout the city, usually as a fundraiser, and are based on the power of 10. Ten rounds made up of 10 questions each. Ten players to a team, at $10 a head. The team that answers the most questions correctly goes home with a cut of the take. If this sounds like your kind of action, here are a few things you should know.

Some players will enter competition cold, counting on the useless information they’ve accumulated through the years to carry them to victory. This may work in rare cases, but most players will need to cram to gain that much-needed edge.

Many trivia nights base at least some of their questions on a particular theme that is advertised before the event. If the theme is NASCAR and you type that along with “trivia ” into a search engine, there’s a decent chance you can brush up on the subject using the same sites that the organizers used when they came up with questions.

Proper team composition also is critical for success. Try to span generations so that you have one team member who knows who wrote “Mood Indigo” and another who knows the names of all the original MTV veejays. You’ll also want individuals who are wonkish on such subjects as history, geography, politics and sports. If a church sponsors the event, make sure that at least one person on your team is steeped in that particular faith.

While virtue dictates that you don’t cheat, and electronic devices are prohibited, some of your competitors might.

Beware of interlopers. Participants should be especially mindful in crowded halls where competing teams are seated within earshot. Deliberations should be conducted in hushed tones or through hastily scratched guesses on scraps of paper. Sign language might seem a useful defense, but you can never be sure if that person staring over from across the room has a deaf aunt.

A shrewd player will take advantage of the propensity for eavesdropping at trivia functions. “The Oscar for Best Picture in 1962? Why, ‘The Apartment,’ of course,” she will whisper, just loud enough to be overheard. Meanwhile, she’s correctly writing “Lawrence of Arabia” on her answer sheet and scoring a two-point advantage.

In later rounds, after the snoops have gotten wise to the misinformation campaign being waged against them, the shrewd player will begin blurting out correct answers to obvious questions, causing their unnerved rivals to second guess what they thought to be true.

Gamesmanship is crucial for success, but modesty is even more important. Be respectful of all of the things that you just don’t have a clue about.

After the team I play on won a couple of events, we let vanity get the best of us. We began strutting into trivia halls like wrestlers making their way to the ring. We considered demanding appearance fees. And then … we were humbled by the Friends of Lincoln Library, which held a trivia night that took us from genius to dolt in under three hours.

If only the team seated next to us were a little smarter.

Name the first LPGA Tour rookie to win the State Farm Classic.

Here’s a hint: It wasn’t Nancy Lopez.

While you’re looking through the record book to test your LPGA fact-finding skills, you might think about entering a contest in which knowledge of women’s pro golf might come in handy.

Officials of the State Farm Classic plan to stage several special events leading up to the 30th annual tournament that will take place on Labor Day weekend, Sept. 1-4 at The Rail Golf Course. The first event is coming up soon, and while it’s not a brand-new concept, it will be a first for events connected with the Labor Day weekend tournament.

The State Farm Classic will stage a trivia night at 6 p.m. April 15 at The Rail. Entry fee is $10 per person, and there will be a limit of eight to 10 players at each table. Questions won’t be limited to golf or even sports, and there will be several side games along with the trivia contest.

Proceeds will go to the designated charities that will benefit from this year’s tournament. But Phil Gonet, this year’s tournament chairman, said the event also is designed to “help get our message across.

“This is something new, and we’re interested in seeing how it turns out,” Gonet said. “We’ve never started keying on the (tournament) this far in advance, but as we’re finding out, there’s a lot of competition for entertainment in Springfield and central Illinois.

“We want to plant the seed now, early in the year, that we have something special here. It’s been here 30 years and we want to keep it going.”

Desiree Logsdon, chairperson of the tournament’s 30th Anniversary Committee, said the trivia night will be the first of several events created especially for the 2005 tournament. There will be another event during the summer, and a third one during the week leading up to the tournament itself. Details of those events will be announced later.

“The committee is so enthused, we’ve almost had to curtail the number of events we want to do,” Logdson said. “You have to pick and choose what you’re able to do, what time will allow.

“I’ve done a lot of committee and charity work in the community, and I’m dazzled by the enthusiasm for this.”

In staging the trivia night more than four months ahead of the tournament itself, Gonet said the Classic is following the lead of some other annual Springfield events.

“Things like preview parties have worked for Air Rendezvous and the Illinois State Fair,” Gonet said. “So we’re thinking, ‘Let’s start thinking about the State Farm Classic now.

“After 30 years, I thought it would be hard to come up with some new ideas. But this committee has come up with some good ones.”

More details about the trivia night event can be found at www. springfieldtrivia.com . For reservations, call the tournament office at 528-5742.

They cheer wildly about Spam, they rack their brains about “The Beverly Hillbillies” and they almost riot over the death of country singer Hank

Williams.

What kind of person would get so emotional over trivial things? By the looks of the crowded Ursuline Academy gym on a recent Trivia Night , it looks like all kinds of people are taking seriously the insignificant.

“Keep in mind this is trivia ; this is useless knowledge,” says Norm Sims, president of the Springfield Noon Lions Club, one organization that has watched its trivia nightfund raisers grow in popularity. “Almost anybody can perform and perform real well.”

And that’s the allure for trivia buffs who weekend after weekend have been flocking to these community gatherings, which have become popular ways for schools and other groups to fund their needs.

The categories of questions cover everything from fine works of literature to trashy TV shows.

“That’s what people like,” says Sara Stremsterfer, president of Ursuline Academy’s alumni board, another group that has caught the trivia bug. “It kind of covers the whole spectrum of what people know about.”

While trivia enthusiasts are mulling over what movie contains the line “Show me the money!” the $10 that each player drops at the door helps local groups raise cash for good causes.

The Lions have been staging trivia nights every few months for about a year, says Sims, director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs. The proceeds go to Springfield’s eye bank, which gathers donated eyes and coordinates transplants.

At Ursuline, which held a trivia night last weekend, the money goes to its alumni association, which funds scholarships for students. The school usually organizes about three events a year, Stremsterfer says.

Both groups are planning their next trivia nights for January.

Being charitable is the underlying theme, but the competitive nature of trivia nights is evident right as you walk through the door of the old-fashioned Ursuline gym.

The lines of folding tables, covered with white plastic tablecloths, already are being filled by the 24 teams that will play this night .

Five to 10 members of each team start the evening with light-hearted banter, while others are peering across the expansive room, scrutinizing the competition.

One team noted for its proficiency at trivia is a group of seven lawyers and a librarian.

A odd collection — maybe — but it makes sense because the eight people are four married couples. And it turns out, each has his or her niche of knowledge.

For team member Nancy Huntley, director of Lincoln Library, the categories of strength are old television shows and, of course, books.

Her husband, Ed, like the other men on the team, all claim to be the sports experts, she says.

The team has grabbed first place and a cash prize on this particular night , despite the absence of a couple of regulars.

Sims and his assembly of friends are seated in the next row of tables. This is a switch for Sims and Co., who usually write and research the trivia questions for Lions Clubtrivia nights .

“We can write questions to make other people feel stupid, but I don’t know about answering them,” says Russ Elmore, a local accountant and second vice president of the Lions.

The pregame din quiets as the emcee, perched on an elevated stage to overlook the crowd, begins the journey through 100 questions. The 10 bits of trivia in 10 categories range from movies, food and music to famous quotes.

And, yes, there’s a series of queries about Jed, Jethro and their bubbling crude.

This is the type of category that can break some teams, especially if they are unfamiliar with the ’60s TV show.

Not Huntley and her teammates.

“I was a little bit embarrassed that I knew as much as I did about `The Beverly Hillbillies,’ ” she says. “I didn’t know all of them, though.”

The emcee methodically reads each question twice and only twice. With stopwatch in hand, he waits 30 seconds before proceeding to the next question.

Each category includes a few easy questions and then some more difficult ones, which prompt the heavy thinkers to tap their pencils, scratch their heads and engage in quiet debate before agreeing on an answer.

“It begins with a D, I know it does!” says one exasperated player, trying to spit out the rest of an answer.

Creating tense moments is all part of the challenge for the question writers, which can be a full-time job in itself.

Sims is always looking out for an interesting nugget of trivia . He keeps a file folder handy so he can drop in new questions that might show up at a later contest.

The next challenge when assembling a question bank is to have something for everybody.

“We try to spread the questions out so they’re not all current so that people from World War II years have their shot at some of the trivia as well as younger folks,” Sims says.

The Lions’ question writers’ ideas come from a variety of places, including almanacs and newspapers.

They don’t, though, build questions from the Internet.

Sims said he likes to be able to offer hard, reliable backup for an answer, something an anonymously assembled Web site often can’t offer. Another concern is that the numerous question banks on the Net already are being perused by computer-savvy players.

Sims says it’s difficult to find a category that completely stumps everyone.

“What’s always amazed me is how many questions a group of adults can answer when they’re working together.”

The question writers do try to make common categories a little more difficult by going off the beaten path.

Instead of asking about high-profile sports such as baseball and football, expect to see question about bowling, NASCAR racing or the sport where you’d “tick-tack” or “walk the dog” (skateboarding). It’s a formula that means even the most well-read or educated trivia player won’t be able to prepare for everything.

“By definition, you should not be able to study for this,” Huntley says.

When everyone at a table finally does get stumped, the teams begin their complex guessing procedure.

Sometimes one person will come up with a seemingly foolproof theory, complete with reasoning and details that almost could convince a mathematician.

Other times team members go searching elsewhere for the answer.

In one case, a team concentrated for several seconds about which company makes Butterfinger candy bars (Nestle) before one player spotted the plastic bag of assorted candy his teammates were munching on.

He quickly rifled through the pile. Darn. Only Snickers and Twix bars.

After each set of 10 questions, players get two minutes to check over their responses before one member runs the sheet of paper up to the judges (where all decisions are final). The tension builds as the emcee begins revealing the answers.

Teams emit thunderous cheers when they hear they correctly figured out a combination of chopped pork shoulder, ham meat, salt, water, sugar and sodium nitrate make up the culinary delight known as Spam.

The joy can turn into near rage, as well, when teams dispute an answer.

There were groans and screams in the Ursuline gym when the emcee informed players that it was Hank Williams Sr. who was found dead in the back of a Cadillac.

Answers that specified only Hank Williams would be wrong, since Hank Jr. is also a country star, known for his, “Are you ready for some football?” ditty on “Monday NightFootball.”

Once the judges determine right from wrong, the teams’ scores are flashed on the wall using an overhead projector.

Eyes dart around the room as players match up the high scores to the happy faces.

Volunteers circle the room, providing the scholars with endless brain food (actually popcorn). And Ursuline helps boost its scholarship fund with the Trivia Tap, where patrons can grab a drink and sandwich.

A traditional 50-50 drawing helps pull in even more money. On this night , Stremsterfer estimates the 200 trivia -goers racked up donations of around $2,000. The team of lawyers and a librarian makes a traditional post-game trip for pie and coffee. There they discuss the evening’s questions that they got right, or not.

Huntley says that while the debates can get heated, she and other enthusiasts keep in mind that it’s all for a good cause.

“We know it’s for charity, and we know places like the Ursuline Alumni Association and the Lions Club do good things,” she says.