COLLEGE AND QUIZZING chapter 194

I really thought that once I got back to Regina my connection to quizzing would end. We began attending a small church on the Westside that had no youth. You need youth to have Bible Quizzing. Even if there had been the people, I don’t know whether I would have had the time. My wife tells me I would not.

My life increased intensity as the year went on. It tricked me in December. It let me get comfortable and then just piled things on. First there was the Portrait Players. That program built to the Christmas program. There was a reprieve. The Christmas break came along just in time and we headed to Red Deer, Alberta to spend time with Della’s family. Back to driving in the snow, yuck!

Early in the break I got a call from Dan Rinker asking if I would be the quizmaster for Internationals. Bill Berry had quit a couple of year earlier, and his replacement, Ted Mock, was unable to do it in the summer of 1975. I said yes being unable to anticipate what was about to happen to me. The quizmaster writes all the questions for the meet. I knew how to do that. I had done it each year for the quiz practices. It takes time, but is not that hard. Just agreeing to be quizmaster did not mean I immediately jumped on the task of writing quwstions.

Immediately after the Christmas break, everything became a rush. Youth Conference suddenly seemed to take over my life. Rehearsals for the Portrait Players summer tour production of The Maze began in earnest as well as rehearsals for Youth Conference. Then there were still classes and I was a first year teacher still trying to get his sea legs. Della wondered at times if I even remembered I was married with children,

Writing quiz questions would have to wait. And wait it did — until after schools end and the tour was over, That meant my summer was rapidly disappearing making my wife less than thrilled.

But I made my way off to St. Paul Bible College and Bible quizzing to complete the circle from quizzer, to coach, to quizmaster. I expected I would know several of the coaches and maybe even a few quizzers. Here’s a piece of the report for Alliance Life about the 1975 International Quiz Competitions

The final competition to determine the number one team in the United States and Canada was keen. The suspense was exciting. The audience shouted loud and long. Clyde Walker frequently raised his hand. After two quizzes it was over. South Pacific had taken first place; West Central, second; and Northwestern, third.

 I tried to calm the audience for the last question of the final quiz so everyone could hear, but also to get control of my own nerves. In the finals were the South Pacific team and some of them I had coached the previous year. I could not mess this up and mostly I could not show favoritism. These were my quizzers. Bill and Faith were there once again to coach the team. We talked strategy before the meet began and we agreed not to talk about that again until after the meet.

The quiz was tense with the lead changing hands several times. It was another one of those quizzes coming down to the wire. The South Pacific was ahead by ten points going into question 20 (the last one). With each question worth 20 points, they had to get the question to hold onto their lead. John Keihl (SP) got the jump and came to the mic. He took so long I was sure he was going to miss it. I could see Bill and Faith dying in the front bench. Then finally, without hesitation he got it right and pandemonium reigned. South Pacific became the International champs for 1975. I nearly collapsed myself. Being quizmaster it the most tense job in the whole program.

Would I do it again? Yes! I did it the next year as well. In 1977 Bill Berry returned. He was absolutely the best quizmaster. The team from the Canadian Midwest had suffered a terrible tragedy and needed a coach to fill in. In the spring the Regina team was driving to Winnipeg for a meet, hit black ice and their coach, Jan Neufeld, was killed in the auto accident leaving behind her husband and small child. The team was devastated but still wanted to go to Internationals. Rev. Orthner asked if I would take them to Internationals I doubted they would be in any emotional state to compete, but believed the trip would be good for the team and bring some healing. It did just that.

My next return to the Bible quizzing program would come in the summer of 1981.