Team History

Our story begins in the fall of 2001, back when we were all measly little freshmen living in "the But," otherwise known as Tulane's Butler House. One day, Jason Horn said to Allen Kolko and Alysha Rooks, "Hey, I used to do quiz bowl in high school. Wouldn't it be cool if Tulane had a team?" to which Allen and Alysha, never having done quiz bowl, responded, "Ummm....OK." After recruiting Jen Weaver, the four of them went on a quest to reestablish Tulane's College Bowl team. Our first buzzer was of a shoddy sort, having been donated to us by neighboring Loyola "Goyola" University. A fifth member, Dan Jatres, was recruited, and so the Tulane College Bowl team was born. Practices were held that first year in the Deuce's lounge (Butler 2 lounge). No thought was given to attending tournaments until spring semester 2002, when Jason said, "You know, we didn't just have practices. We should go to tournaments, too," to which Allen and Alysha responded, "Ummm....OK." Our first tournament was the Louisiana-Lafayette Junior Bird tournament where the team placed second to a strong UT-Austin team. The runner-up trophy for that tournament was placed on top of the TV in the Allen Kolko-Jason Horn room, never to be seen again.

2002-2003: The following year, the club expanded even more, actually obtaining members that they hadn't gone out drinking with all the time the previous year. The roster contained a veritable cornucopia of people, freshmen and grad student alike. The team qualified for the NAQT ICT that year, but had to decline, because they were very, very poor. They are poor no longer, however, after hosting the 2003 NAQT Lousiana State HS Championship in April 2003. On April 11, 2003, the club's first true elections were held, resulting in a tie for VP between Alysha and freshman sensation J. Ryan Sullivant. A recount proved unfruitful, and so Allen and Jason, the two impartial executive board members decided that the tie can only be broken with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissor. After a grueling, double overtime match, Alysha emerged victorious.

2003-2004: The club has now entered its third year of existence, expanding even more, much to Allen's dismay, who would much prefer that fewer people join so he can remain TRASH king of the team and be able go to academic tournaments despite his limited knowledge. While Allen remains the TRASH king of the team, the team's expansion means that meetings are now exceedingly crowded. It appears as though it's time to move out of our cozy home in the Willow Multipurpose Room, and up to the big leagues in the soon-to-be-demolished UC. Luckily, for us, however, while rummaging through the TUCP office, Jason found many remnants of the old Tulane College Bowl team, including 2 buzzer systems and questions, allowing us to accommodate all the new freshies. They also bought a Judge (the epitome of buzzers) and had another mistakenly sent to them, so they are now rich in buzzers. And you know what they say about teams that own a lot of buzzers... Spring 2004 brought with it mediocre tournament results, but there was some good news - they saved a bunch of money on their car insurance by switching to Geico! Seriously, though, due to the inability of some teams to attend, the team qualified for TRASHionals 007: LAZENBY!!! at UTC and finished in the middle of the pack (18th of 30, not too shabby).

2004-2005: Year number four for Tulane College Bowl, and nothing but good tidings abound. We continue to host the NAQT Louisiana State Championship, which brings in some nice money for us, but in addition, we also host TRASH's Follow That Junior Bird and the granddaddy of all quiz bowl tournaments, the NAQT ICT. 60+ teams, converging on New Orleans one weekend in early April to determine the true quiz bowl national championship. Much excitement.

2005-2006: The fifth year of TUCB was going to be tough, with the entire executive board departing for parts unknown following graduation. Making things worse, Hurricane Katrina cancelled classes for the fall semester, scattering the remaining members and sending whatever buzzer systems the team owned up to Chicago. But the new year brought with it new hope and a new president (the third in the club's existence), and the team competed in its first tournament in the post-Jason era in February, finishing second to UL-Lafayette in NAQT sectionals in Austin. They also made the trek up to Chattanooga for Charlie's RC Cola and Moon Pie Classic tournaments before the end of the semester.