> > Our school academic team had either "Leon Trotsky" or "Pancho Villa" as the answer to questions we didn't know. We even named our new buzzer system (yes, we named the buzzer system! The old one was Big Bertha) "Trotsky".
> >
> > -Fob"is going with two other alumni of the all-star team to watch a district meet tomorrow... the a-team homecoming game?"ulis
>
> Heh. A few semi-related tangential thoughts which entered my head:
>
> 1) My middle school academic team's favorite answer for any question involving poets was Robert Frost.
>
> 2) Our middle school had an amusing academic team ritual, if you could call it that. Our semi-official team mascot was a Dr Pepper bottle which we named Bob. We brought Bob to many of the tournaments in which we competed. OK, so you probably had to be there...
>
> 3) One member of my current high school academic team has forever been associated with the name "Johnny Appleseed", after he replied with that answer to a question about that Swiss guy who shot an arrow through an apple on his son's head.
>
> -- codeman"yes, of *course* I'm an academic team geek"38

I, too, experienced some very interesting academic team(or "Scholar's Bowl" as we called it)rituals and tendencies. When I was an alternate(read: Before my brother graduated and they let another member of my family actually hold a buzzer), they had already developed some traditions such as answering "nebula" for all answers they didn't know and carrying with them a stuffed "Curious George" style monkey as a mascot. My junior year was the last year with the guy who owned the monkey and I was up for presidency my senior year. A new mascot had to be found. My solution? Sprites. Not those Coca-Cola products which have the Lemon-lime flavor. No sir! We used the little dolls from Rainbow Brite. Everyone on first team had a different color sprite. The alternates were mad because they didn't get mascots. I always had the white one because I was captain. And we also introduced a new "I don't really know" answer. Any question that had anything remotely to do with a sea-going vessel, or space going vessel, or any type of mode of transportation for that matter, would prompt the answer "The Enterprise." That answer got us to state champs, believe it or not. You'd be surprised how many "enterprise" answers are in the average state championship Scholar's Bowl tournament.

Shan-"What is-" "Mr. Fancher." "Yes?" "This is not Jeopardy. Do not answer in the form of a question." "Oh yeah. Nebula." "No, Mr. Fancher"-dar