NAC Hall of Fame
The NAC Hall of Fame was a group of people designated, generally arbitrarily, by Chip Beall. It is unknown what criteria were involved. The 2000 tournament summary stated that "the Hall of Fame generally requires a player to be a standout for two consecutive seasons at Nationals, and to lead the team to the title in one of those years"; however, if an NAC veteran later performed well on Jeopardy!, they were usually added. The inclusion of Evans, Harris, or Powell, who never played on a tournament-winning team, remains unexplained. The 2003 tournament summary stated that "a player cannot be selected for the Hall of Fame in his first year of competition at Nationals."
In later years, the captain of the team that won the tournament entered the Hall of Fame. Many Quizbowl greats, including Andrew Yaphe and Jacob Mikanowski, have been excluded from the Hall; this was alleged to be due to criticizing the tournament and the questions in particular, though this was never proven.
Beall declared in the 1999 and 2000 tournament summaries that "only ten players have ever been elected to the Hall of Fame," yet twelve players from 1999 or before are now listed, as Rutter and Madden were added due to their success on Jeopardy!.
Known members of the NAC Hall of Fame
- Mike Keller (Irmo, '85-87)
- Eric Evans (Granville, OH, '88-89)
- Jim Paluszak (Dorman, SC, '89-91)
- Matt Bruce (Booker T. Washington, OK, '89-92)
- Mark Staloff (East Brunswick, NJ, '94)
- Brad Rutter (Manheim Township, PA, '92-95)
- Brad Harris (James Island, SC, '92-95)
- Amanda Goad (Governor's School, VA, '93-96)
- Scott Petty (Houston Eisenhower '95 and Houston Memorial '96)
- Justin Powell (James Island, '95-98)
- Ryan Cooper (James Island, '95-99)
- Dave Madden (Ridgewood, 1998-1999)
- Jonathan Hess (Irmo, 1998-2002)
- Sara Sheer (Horace Greeley, 2001-2004)
- Matt Pargeter (Holland Hall, 2002-2005)
- Nate Mattison (Byram Hills, 2004-2006)
- Fuhe Xu (Harrison, 2004-2007)
- Ariel Schneider (Harrison, 2004-2007)
- Dylan Hames (Booker T. Washington, 2006-2008)
Others were added to the list after 2008; but, the list no longer exists, and Chip does not remember additional names that were in the Hall.