David Madden
| David Madden | |
| Noted subjects | history, geography |
| Past colleges | Princeton (1999-2001) |
| High school | Ridgewood (1995-1999) |
| Stats | HDWhite • NAQT |
David Madden is the founder and Executive Director of the National History Bee and Bowl. He began his quiz bowl career playing for Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, NJ from 1995-1999, where he led the team to a fifth place finish at the 1999 PACE NSC and a second place finish at the 1999 NAC. For the 2011-2012 season he returned to coach and revive Ridgewood's quiz bowl team.
After high school, Madden played for a few years from 1999-2001 at Princeton, where his skills in history and geography paled in comparison to those of Jeff Hoppes and Jacob Mikanowski. This led Madden to take a bit of a hiatus from the quiz bowl world.
Jeopardy
Madden's friendship with Hoppes would lead both of them to try out for Jeopardy while on a bird watching trip in California in May 2004. Then, in 2005, Madden would appear on the show, where his run of 19 straight wins became second only to that of Ken Jennings, who had a legendary run of 74 consecutive victories. (Madden has since been eclipsed again, and as of 2021, his streak of 19 is now fifth all-time.) Madden's play on the show featured routine hunting for Daily Doubles, which was both highly effective and drove Alex Trebek crazy. During his time on the show, Madden would select 46 Daily Doubles and answer 44 correctly.
Jeopardy led Madden to become involved again with quiz bowl, first through moderating at NAC, then by volunteering at other tournaments.
Madden's other quiz bowl activities include lecturing on ancient and European military history at ACE Camps, reading at dozens of tournaments, including HSNCT and NSC; running charity tournaments to support quiz bowl teams; running the Jersey Shore Open summer tournament, creating a state tournament for New Mexico schools with the support of New Mexico's US Senators, and organizing the Online Skype Practice League.
National History Bee and Bowl
In 2010, Madden had the idea to run an all-history quiz bowl tournament at Ridgewood High School. This tournament, which was attended by 34 teams including (what is thought to be a record for one school) 16 teams from Ridgewood, proved to be so much fun that Madden put on hold his plans to become a history teacher and decided to found the National History Bee and Bowl, which he works over 100 hours a week on.
In January 2016, he founded the United States Academic Bee and Bowl, a pyramidal competition for middle and elementary school students.