Academic Quiz Team
People

We may put some sort of interesting information about all of the wonderful people of Carleton's Academic Quiz Team here eventually. For now, here is a simple list of the Carleton students who have played for us in 2007/08:

Trevor Burnham '08
Richard Leavelle '08

Ted Kuhn '09
Garrett Ryan '09

Chris Burke '10
Emily Kawaler '10
Will Levine '10
Chris Logel '10
Rebecca Palmer '10
Nathaniel Snell '10
Nathan White '10

Austin Bell '11
Marc Boyce '11
Laura Dismore '11
Dan Ehrensberg '11
Eli Gold '11
Nathan Lysne '11
Larry Rolen '11
Michael Servis '11
Andreas Stoehr '11
Tom Sullivan '11

The team has been coached since 1990 by Eric Hillemann, Carleton's College Archivist. Eric's addiction to quizbowl began in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin in the 1980s. When Wisconsin won the College Bowl national championship in 1986 in Atlanta, Eric was along as an assistant coach. Since then, in addition to coaching he has been a frequent player on the masters circuit and a frequent moderator at tournaments of all sorts. After serving for three years as an ACUI regional coordinator for College Bowl in the mid-1990s he has since been heavily involved with NAQT (National Academic Quiz Tournaments), for which he has been Vice President for Development and Chief Editor. Eric's quizbowl distinctions include his status as the only person to have moderated national championship finals in each of the three major academic formats (NAQT, ACF, and College Bowl), and as one of only a handful of people to have won an open team tournament while playing solo. He has contributed a number of innovations to the game in coaching (such as his infamous 500-question diagnostic tests, and his frequency-of-mention of titles databases) and in tournament formats (he invented both the "Deep Bench" style team tournament, and what is now known as the Hillemann-style singles tournament). He is most proud, however, of being the "father" of two innovations pioneered by NAQT: the undergraduate national title, and "Division II" competition for less-experienced players. Eric has also been a "Jeopardy!" champion and a successful "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" phone-a-friend lifeline, having helped his friend Kevin Olmstead toward a $2.18 million payoff, at the time the largest prize in TV game show history. In 2003 Eric became the fourth recipient of the Dr. N. Gordon Carper Lifetime Achievement Award for "meritorious service in sustaining and enriching collegiate academic competitions."

Results of Eric's taking the Quiz Bowl Sorting Hat test:

For you, simply playing the game is as fun as winning, as long as it's fair. You do your best, but you also enjoy the camaraderie of your teammates.