APPLETON – Lawrence University's 55th annual Great Midwest Trivia Contest is happening this weekend, starting at 10:00:37 p.m. on Friday January 24th and closes at midnight on Sunday January 26th.
The student-run competition is one of the longest-running traditions at Lawrence.
The Great Midwest Trivia Contest probably isn't trivia as you know it. For 50 straight hours, a team of trivia masters solve 300 questions that require teamwork and extensive searching to answer. Nearly 100 teams from on and off campus will take part. Many groups are made up of current students or alumni, but others are simply trivia fans, local and around the world.
The first game was in 1966. It continues to air every year on the digital broadcast of WLFM, the student radio station. Digital broadcasting allows groups from near and far to participate.
The questions come almost non-stop. Highlights include hourly action questions. On the last day of the competition come the Garudas – very difficult questions – topped by the Super Garuda, the impossible final question that returns as the first question of next year's competition.
Lawrence Senior Allegra Taylor is this year's trivia director. He oversees a team of 13 trivia teachers who run the contest.
Taylor has been playing trivia since she was a freshman.
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“Trivia was one of the reasons I came to Lawrence,” he said. “I got a few friends together and I started a group as soon as I got here.”
But she didn't always have her sights set on being a trivia teacher, let alone the principal.
“The thought of doing it was so scary because it was such a big responsibility. I didn't know if I wanted to take it on,” he said.
The trivia director oversees the programming of the contest, which has been in the works since May of last year.
“This is a 55-year-old tradition, so if you mess it up…,” Taylor said as her voice trailed off. “But it was great. I have a great team of trivia teachers, so I'm really excited.”
Registration for the Great Midwest Trivia Contest begins at 8 p.m. on the first night of the competition. For more details, please visit blogs.Lawrence.edu/trivia/front-page.