IRVINE : UCI Quiz Kids Saw Trouble Coming Up

UC Irvine’s College Bowl team members knew there was trouble ahead when they drew the University of Chicago as their first opponent in the first round of the national academic tournament.

And although they lost to Chicago--the tournament favorites who went on to win the national title--the Irvine team managed to keep the lead for 12 minutes of the 14-minute game, team member David Frakt said.

However, the four-member Irvine team won a consolation tournament, beating the University of Oregon to claim the title of best College Bowl team on the West Coast. The tournament was held Saturday at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in Minneapolis.

Frakt, the self-proclaimed cheerleader of the team, said spirits were lagging going into the first round because “we played a practice game against the University of Chicago team the night before and they wiped us out.”

In an effort to improve morale, Frakt predicted to the team that the first two questions would be in geography and literature and that Irvine would answer these questions correctly.

When his prediction proved true, Frakt said the mood of team members changed and Irvine held the lead until the last two minutes. Irvine faltered by buzzing in early on a question about the film “Citizen Kane” and its colorization by the Turner Broadcasting Network.

Frakt said he answered “colorization” instead of giving the film title, giving Chicago the lead it kept it until the end.

The frustration of losing in the final minutes, by a score of 255 to 175, contributed to Irvine’s subsequent loss to the University of Pennsylvania in the tournament’s double-elimination format, Frakt said.