FOGHAT 2003 Thanks

oneeyed_squirrel <*no_reply_at_yahoogroups.com*> · Tue, 21 Oct 2003 02:42:33 -0000

I owe several people thanks for their services in FOGHAT 2003: In the 
Mood For Something Rude, the trash tournament I ran at my alma mater, 
Missouri-Rolla on October 19th.  First and foremost, I want to thank 
the teams that joined the fray and made it worthwhile.

The tournament ran much better logistically than past years and I 
assure you I am no more organized than a year ago, so all the thanks 
there goes to the staff who made that happen.  The UMR ACO members, 
especially Bill Stallard, as always did a fine job with the pre-work 
like securing the rooms and also helped set up buzzers, etc to get us 
off to a fast start.  Believe me, their help is critical when you run 
a tournament in a spot that is a seven hour drive from your home.  
Second, we had a fine moderating crew of Ben Lea, Brandon Chapman, 
Paul Nelson, Rob Wright and Malcolm Hays who took time out of their 
busy schedules to officiate the games.  Last and most certainly not 
least, Matt Crook expertly handled stats compiling and food delivery.

My heartiest thanks are due to Ben Lea, who I have typically called 
assistant tournament director in reference to his past Trash Masters 
position, but in reality at FOGHAT he is co-tournament director.  
Beyond those duties and his question writing, he also deserves credit 
for basically inspiring the entire tournament.  I was so burned out 
after FOGHAT 2002 that I had decided to kill it off.  About a week 
later, Ben sent me a toss-up by e-mail and said it would be toss-up 
20 of Round 9 and everything was back on.  Ben provides the perfect 
inspiration for this type of tournament.  Even though Ben's credited 
questions are only about 10% of the overall packet set, he helps 
immensely with other ideas, ways to find information, etc.  Only Ben 
gives me emergency calls to let me know Sports Center is about to run 
a highlight reel of squirrel related plays or comes up with the most 
demented possible answer when I e-mail him with a question like, "Can 
you think of a third song about a MILF?"

Also on the writing front, thanks are due to Dave Murphy who decided 
to write questions and not to play in FOGHAT this year after winning 
his third consecutive FOG hat last year.  Dave was unable to attend 
so I could not thank him personally on the day, but he deserves it no 
less for contributing roughly two packets worth of fine questions, 
even if they were haunted by Rush Limbaugh's ghost writer.

Finally, this is not directly related to FOGHAT, but thanks to the 
UMR ACO for running an excellent Rollapalooza tournament.

Jeremy White