Oregon
| University of Oregon | |
| |
|---|---|
| Location: Eugene, OR | |
| Current President or Coach | none |
| National championships | |
| NAQT Page | link |
University of Oregon (UO) is a public university located in Eugene, Oregon. They currently lack an active university affiliated club, although they occasionally send unaffiliated teams to tournaments.
History
College Bowl Years(1979-2000)
The first known UO quiz bowl activity was in 1959 when they appeared on the GE College Bowl show where they lost to Stanford. The Ducks also appeared in 1967, but also lost, this time to the Colorado.
With the restart of CBI in 1978, the UO became among the top programs in the Pacific Northwest region (AKA CBI Region 14). The first sign of Oregon's College Bowl strength was in the 1984-85 school year when Oregon qualified for the National Invitational Tournament. Oregon also attended the tournament again in 1985-86. It won the Region 14 championship 4 out of 5 years from 1990 to 1994 and qualified for the CBI national Championship after each of those regional championships. 1990 also saw the start of a streak of top 4 Region 14 finishes that lasted until 2000.
Quiz Bowl Years(2001-02)
The College Bowl program was defunded late in 2000. However, a lucky set of circumstances led to not only Oregon's revival in the arena of quiz bowl, but its' biggest moment as well. Sean Cole, who had been a member of the 1999 and 2000 UO College Bowl teams, had been attempting to expand Oregon's quiz bowl profile beyond CBI, but it finally gained traction when Philip Huang came to the UO from Berkeley. Cole's recruting efforts also found another enthusiastic teammate, Amy Fuller.
The three person team went to the 2001 NAQT Northwest Regional Tournament at the University of Washington. Oregon surprised everyone, including Texas A&M in the final, to win the championship. Philip led the tournament in individual scoring doubling the output of the runner-up. That victory also enabled the Ducks to participate in the 2001 NAQT championship at Washington University in St Louis, where Huang finished 6th in individual scoring.
2001 also saw the start of a tradition of Oregon folks going to Vancouver, BC to participate in the VETO tournament. Despite playing without Philip and being the only American team in the Canadian themed tournament, Oregon finished 4th at the 2001 VETO tourneyand saw Sean place 4th in individual scoring. The Ducks also placed 3rd in the Count Chocula's Toilet Bowl with Sean finishing 2nd in individual scoring.
Oregon also made its first trip to Berkeley the summer tournament BASQUE and its Berkeley Audio Recall Shindig tournament (BARS). The highlight of the weekend was Amy Fuller finishing 8th in the BARS tournament.
Although Cole had graduated in 2001, he was able to join Amy and Tanya at the 2002 Cardinal Classic where he finished 5th in individual scoring as a member of Sean's Angels along with Sophia Tsai fom UCLA.
2002 also saw the restoration of the CBI funding, and Oregon finished 3rd in the Region 14 championships with Philip leading the way in individual scoring. Oregon finished 2nd at the 2002 NAQT Northwest Regional Tournament with Philip leading the way in individual scoring once again.
Unaffiliated Era (2003-present)
2002 marked the end of the official UO Quiz Bowl club, but a few of its members have surfaced from time to time in various open tournaments, especially at VETO starting from 2008. The biggest highlight of this period was the victory in the 2009 VETO tournament. Philip led the Ducks by finishing 2nd in individual scoring.
Philip was a member of the 2010 TRASHionals XIII runner-up Square Dance team. Sean teamed with Chris Grubb to win the 2009 Eurofest Tournament (European history tournament at UCSD and finished second in individual scoring behind Dwight Wynne.
Oregon also played in the 2004 Western Invitational Tournament where they placed 5th in a strong field and beat Berkeley A for the first time ever. Philip led the way with a 3rd place individual showing.
With the matriculation of Daniel Hothem to the University of Oregon in 2015, Oregon rejoined the Pacific Northwest quizbowl circuit. Throughout his stint at the university, Oregon sent unaffiliated teams to many of the events hosted by Boise State and the University of Washington, often winning. Upon Daniel's graduation, the Oregon team faded back into dormancy.